A Destiny Star
by Evil Dr. Reef
Summary: After the Third Battle of the Moon, the UEAF regroups during their occupation of Tranquility Base. Hitoshi learns of a secret best kept hidden, and Victor learns the rest of the Martian story.
1. Who Will Leave the Blue Planet Earth?

Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico or its plot, but I would like to imagine that I own the characters and ship I made up. Please don't steal those without asking me.

A Destiny Star

Episode 1: Who Will Leave the Blue Planet Earth?

In the CEO's office of Nergal Heavy Industries, the CEO and his secretary Erina Won were contemplating their next move. The CEO had just been informed of the ND-001 Nadesico's disappearance from Mars.

"Well, you look lovely as usual, Erina," the Chairman of Nergal said as Erina Won, his personal secretary, walked up to him with her report.

"The Nadesico has left Mars, sir, but they have suffered tremendous losses," she began.

"Hmm... That's pretty much what we expected, wasn't it? I suppose it can't be helped. Let's move on to Plan B," the Chairman replied. He had realized that the Schiaparelli Project was not likely going to work, and he wasn't in a position to do anything about it now that the High Mobile Battleship Nadesico had left Mars.

"Hmm... Maybe I should board the Nadesico as well," Erina suggested.

The Chairman reached for the speakerphone and paged one of his "yes men." "Get me the commander of the United Earth Forces. Tell him I've decided it's time to kiss and make up."

-

"They want to let bygones be bygones and work together to win the war?" Admiral Kenji Minamako said as he read the report from Nergal. "After the Nadesico's disappearance from Mars, I can understand why they would do that. They're facing some potentially ugly public backlash for the whole ordeal. But I do have some conditions for their new deal."

"What should I tell the Chairman, sir?" the officer who delivered the message asked.

"There are two conditions," he said. The officer began to write on a legal pad. "First: They must abandon Project Schiaparelli entirely. Second: They must begin building phase transition core battleships for use solely by the UEAF. Those are the conditions, and they are non-negotiable."

The officer bowed and left the room. The admiral was left to his thoughts. "With a UEAF-owned Phase Transition battleship handed to us on a silver platter, we could easily take the design and mass-produce them ourselves without having to rely on Nergal. I doubt they'd be too pleased about that, but it's better than the situation we're in now."

-

Two days later, Admiral Minamako received the reply from the Chairman of Nergal. In the multi-paged document, the Chairman agreed to scrap Project Schiaparelli, the plan to use the Nadesico to retake Mars. Next, it laid out plans for the next Nadesico-class battleship, the ND-002 Cosmos, which would be completed in about four months. Finally, and most importantly, a document outlining the details for the United Earth Forces own phase transition battleship, the Samayahita, was enclosed.

The admiral carefully looked over the document, especially the last part. "Very interesting, Mr. Nakasone," he said to the Nergal employee who delivered the document. The Nergal man cleared his throat. "Yes, I see the part about you being present on the battleship as a Nergal liaison, Mr. Nakasone. I might have known that Nergal wouldn't turn over the phase transition and distortion field technology that easily. Nevertheless, everything else seems to be in order, and I am very interested in seeing everything that is planned for this UEAF ship." The admiral finished talking and signed his name at the bottom of the document.

"Thank you Admiral. You can expect the Samayahita to be completed at about the same time the ND-002 Cosmos will be deployed," Mr. Nakasone said as he picked up the signed document. "In the meantime, you should probably start thinking about your human resources. The best of the best left with the Nadesico, but there are still many other qualified crew members out there."

"I agree," the admiral said quickly. "But it is my personal opinion that the only tragic loss of personnel on board the Nadesico was the science officer Ruri Hoshino. Because she was essentially created in a lab, she was very valuable. I guess such things can't be helped though. I happen to have a few of the candidates for crewmember positions ready for you to interview right now. Please follow me."

The admiral got up and walked towards the door. Mr. Nakasone followed him out of the room.

"We have set up separate interviews with the potential bridge crew members," the admiral said as he lead Mr. Nakasone to the elevator. "You may have heard this line before with the Nadesico's crew, but some of the crew that we have assembled are somewhat unusual. Nevertheless, I would not trust a battleship like this to anyone else but these people. The strangest people are usually the smartest."

The admiral led the Nergal employee to the elevator. They went up three floors before disembarking. After they got off of the elevator, they walked down a long hallway before coming to their destination. They entered the room and sat down.

"The first person we will meet with is the potential captain, Daniel Shroads." The admiral finished and pressed a button on the table. "Send in Captain Shroads," the admiral requested. "Daniel is a very competent man, although he uses some slightly unorthodox tactics in the battlefield. He graduated at the top of his class and was the man with the fewest defeats in the tactical simulator. He was the executive officer on the Kamiseriu before being recommended for a promotion by his captain, Captain Akira Dimeso. He passed the next level of his training with flying colors and was able to beat the simulated enemy by firing a gravity blast cannon at it through an asteroid." The admiral ended as the young man entered the room.

"Good evening Admiral Minamako," the tall, 21 year old said while bowing. "Is this the gentleman from Nergal Heavy Industries?"

"Yes he is, Captain Shroads," the admiral replied. "He would like to know more about you and your background. If you are what he is looking for, he may put you in command of the UEAF's pending Phase Transition core battleship."

Daniel straightened his back slightly and sat in the seat across from the two men. "Well what can I tell you, sir?"

Mr. Nakasone leaned forward. "My name is Victor Nakasone, and as you know, I am from Nergal Heavy Industries. After the fiasco involving the Nadesico and Project Schiaparelli, we have given up our stance that Mars must be retaken. As a result, Nergal will resume working with the UEAF to defeat the Jovian lizards. As part of our "penance" we will be designing one phase transition core battleship for the sole use of the UEAF fleet. This ship will be completely independent of Nergal, unlike the Nadesico, with only me on board as a link between the two parties involved. I would like to see your credentials and find out a little about your interests."

Daniel sat upright and slid forward a folder. Victor pulled it closer and examined the contents carefully. "You've had quite an impressive combat record, not to mention high honors from both academies you attended. A man of your skills does not come by every day. I do not think there would be any man better for the job."

Dan shifted anxiously. "Does this mean..."

"That you will be made captain?" Victor finished for him. "I would be very disappointed if the admiral did not see to it immediately." Dan smiled and expressed his thanks before rising to leave. Victor spoke up one more time. "One more thing. By chance are you a fan of the Anime Gekigangar?"

Dan turned, puzzled. "No, but I do enjoy drawing mechanized units in my spare time. Why do you ask?"

"_Mechanized units? What on Earth?"_ Victor thought to himself. Out loud, he said, "No reason at all. I was just curious." Dan shrugged and excused himself, closing the door quietly behind him.

The admiral laughed. "I have mixed feelings about telling you this," he said, "but he's probably the most normal of the bunch." Victor faked a smile. "Next up is the executive officer, Kato Fatomiyo." The admiral paged Kato and he entered the room. He was a heavyset young man around 20 years old. A short beard that went the length of his face and met his sideburns covered his lower face.

"Hello gentlemen," he said as he seated himself across from Victor and Admiral Minamako. "What can I tell you two?" Victor explained the situation and the development of the PT powered battleship Samayahita that was being built.

"Can I see some documents detailing your military career?" Victor asked. "An executive officer is second in command, and you must have the proper training." Kato didn't try to hide his anger at the insinuation that he was not properly trained to handle a battleship. He quickly pushed his folder of documents forward and scowled at Victor. Victor pretended he didn't notice and opened the folder. After several minutes of reading, Victor closed the folder and pushed it over to the admiral. "It seems you are indeed qualified for the position of executive officer. You seem to be a brilliant tactician. I was surprised to see your in-depth study of World War II tactics, especially since warfare has changed so radically that the old forms of war are obsolete."

Kato folded his arms and smirked. "One is never too old to learn from the masters," he said. "Besides, the old tactics are only obsolete in weaponry. Replace a tank with an Aestivalis and it's basically the same thing. Anyway, warfare is interesting to me."

Victor seemed satisfied with this response. "You know your stuff. I believe you have the job." Kato smiled lightly and rose to leave. Victor asked one final question, "What kind of Anime do you watch?"

Kato was confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question"

"I like realistic Anime with a great deal of action. I also watch a lot of mecha Anime as well."

"Like Gekigangar?"

"Absolutely not. That is by far the worst mecha Anime in the solar system."

Victor enjoyed the final response and waved Kato off. Kato turned quickly and left.

"Why do you keep asking them if they watch Gekigangar?" the admiral asked, curious. Victor shifted uncomfortably.

"That information is on a need-to-know basis, Admiral, and you most certainly do not need to know that," he snapped. He quickly regained control of his emotions and asked for the information on the next recruit. The admiral merely raised an eyebrow and turned back to his papers.

"Her name is Hana Sazeda. She is currently the helmswoman of the battleship Bayakasu. The battleship is so powerful partly because she is the woman in the driver's seat, so to speak. She could successfully steer through an asteroid field an astronomical unit long without taking a pinprick of damage. As far as navigational skills go, she is the best."

He rang for Hana and she entered the room. A young woman in her early twenties, Hana had long black hair and a neutral expression. She had an aura of casual feeling about her, and she was dressed in a loose fitting T-shirt with the UEAF logo on it.

"Good evening Miss Sazeda," Victor smiled.

"You can turn off the charm. I'm immune," she replied quickly. She gently sat in the chair "Are you going to interview me or not?" she asked.

"Yes," Victor replied. "I would like to ask you a few questions about your training." Before Victor could continue, Hana slid the manila folder of her information forward.

"I believe this can answer all of your questions. I'm not really in the business of self-praising." Victor picked up the folder and looked over it.

He looked up and said, "You were trained by Nergal? If this is true, why did we let you go?"

"I quit," she replied curtly.

"Why?"

"That's personal"

"Why?"

She glared at him. "It's _personal_"

He raised his hand dismissively. "Fine, have it your way. Of course if someone quits, Nergal doesn't generally hire that person back."

She stared knives at him. "Then I should thank God that you are not the one making the decision to hire me."

The admiral cleared his throat. "That will be enough. Based on your past experiences, you are plenty qualified. You have the job, Miss Hana."

She stood up to go, and Victor held out his hand for her to shake. "See you on board the Samayahita, Hana," he said. She ignored him and walked out of the room.

"You didn't even get a chance to ask her if she liked Gekigangar," the admiral laughed.

Victor frowned. "To hell with her anyway," he hissed. "Who's next?"

The admiral glanced down at the sheet. "Sosuke Vakia is next. He's the potential communications officer. Apparently he's also a trained soldier and expert marksman. He has the Image Feedback System implants, so he would be able to serve as a backup pilot in a pinch. He has served as the communications officer for the Menijo for the past 8 months, and before that he was an Aestivalis pilot."

"Impressive. Send him in."

The admiral pressed the button on the desk and asked for Sosuke to be sent in. The door opened and a 23-year-old man walked in. He was wearing a black trench coat and had black, slicked back hair. He was wearing black, mirrored sunglasses, and walked proudly. "Hello gentlemen," he said in a low voice as he sat down.

"My God, what is this, the freaking Matrix?" Victor sighed under his breath.

The admiral smiled. "Looking good Mr. Vokia," he said out loud.

"Thank you," Sosuke replied. "I suppose that compared to what you two are used to seeing, this outfit is pretty unusual, but I am a trained soldier and I like to look the part."

Victor regained his composure. "Yes, well your records are quite impressive, despite your unusual garb. It is my personal opinion that anyone could do the job of a communications officer, but you would also be serving as a backup Aestivalis or Delphinium pilot if necessary. In the event of an emergency, you would be deployed and the science officer, who for all practical purposes controls the battleship anyway, would take over your position. Are you fine with these terms?"

Sosuke visibly raised an eyebrow from behind his glasses. "I did read the contract you sent out, thank you very much."

Victor smiled, more or less. "That's fine then. The job is yours then. I expect you to be ready for the training classes the crew will go through. They aren't a cakewalk."

Sosuke nodded his head and turned to leave. "One more thing," Victor called. "What kind of Anime do you watch?"

"I watch Anime with a lot of action and violence," he replied.

"How about Gekigangar?"

"Absolutely not. That is the absolute worst Anime I've ever seen."

Victor smiled satisfactorily. "Very good then. I will see you soon."

Sosuke walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. "Who is the next recruit?" Victor asked before the admiral could say anything.

The admiral fumbled with some papers. "His name is Hitoshi Tsumiyagi. He will be the science officer. He had his DNA altered _after_ his birth using genetic transplants so he could operate the main computer of a battleship. It was an unusual circumstance, actually. He was born on Mars and placed in an orphanage. Soon after he was bought by Nergal and had nanomachine injections, IFS implants, and several genetic alterations using viruses. By the age of four, he was completed and began his extensive education. He is quite capable, but somewhat of an introvert because of his unusual upbringings. Of course, once you get to know him, he's really a nice person. I guess it isn't easy to grow up in a laboratory."

Victor placed his hand under his chin. "Send him in, then."

The admiral paged him and the door opened soon afterwards. A young man in his early 20's walked into the room. He was of average height and had brown hair. He was fairly slim, and somewhat pale. The most striking feature, though, were his yellow eyes. Victor was not surprised in the least, though, since all humans undergoing genetic alterations and some of the more complex nano-implants had yellow eyes. The admiral, on the other hand, was quite taken aback.

"Good afternoon," Hitoshi said as he sat down across from the admiral and Victor. "I'm ready to answer your questions."

Victor sat up. "I believe most of my necessary questions have already been answered by your file and Admiral Minamako. I would like to ask you one or two more personal questions, if you don't mind."

"Okay," Hitoshi said nervously.

"How did your biological parents die?" Victor asked with no concern in his voice.

"They were killed in a skiing accident on the polar ice cap of Mars," Hitoshi replied with equal indifference. "Since I had no other living relatives, I was sent to a foster home where I spent exactly three months, until I was one year old. At that time, I was "adopted" by Nergal and modified to the form you see before you."

Victor was struck by the lack of concern Hitoshi showed. "Don't you even care that your parents were killed?"

Hitoshi sighed. "Of course I care, but I can't really do anything about it. I would have loved nothing more than the chance to grow up as an average child, but it is too late for regrets now. Anyway, I don't care for aliens, and I would like to fight in this war to get rid of them."

Victor shrugged. "Okay then, question number two. Have you ever been to Scandinavia?"

Hitoshi shifted uncomfortably. "I'll assume you are referring to the Nergal research clinic there, the one where they "made" Miss Ruri Hoshino, the science officer of the Nadesico. I've never been there myself, but I know a great deal about it, not to mention the fact that it was shut down a few years ago because it was inhumane. I was not educated there, mostly because I was genetically modified after I was born."

Victor placed his hand on the manila folder Hitoshi had brought in with him. "Only two more questions left. You're doing good so far Mr. Tsumiyagi." Victor slid the folder off of the desk onto his lap for safekeeping. "Do you remember what your parents did for a living?"

Hitoshi was beginning to get angry. "I can't really see how that is any of your business," he snapped.

Victor smirked. "You don't know, do you?"

Hitoshi turned away from him. "No, I don't. Are you happy now?"

The smirk on the Nergal employee's face grew. "Final question: What kind of Anime do you like?"

Hitoshi turned back to him. "I like most everything, especially giant robots and space battles."

"Gekigangar?"

Hitoshi almost smiled at the man. "You can't be serious." He got up and left the two men. 

"You can expect to begin the crew training in about two weeks," the admiral called to him. Hitoshi turned, bowed to them, and left.

The admiral turned to Victor. "You really are something else," he said. "You do realize you will be spending an undetermined amount of time with these people on board the Samayahita, don't you? If you make these people your enemies now, the people on whom your life depends, you will be in big trouble later."

Victor merely waved his hand. "Don't worry. I know how to play this. I've learned from the best at Nergal. The crew will learn to trust me before you know it."

The admiral turned back to his papers. "_The question is, can Nergal even be trusted?"_ he thought to himself. He said out loud, "Next up is a scientist we have commissioned to study the Phase Transition technology in detail, and to study the Jovian attack patterns and AI coordination. His name is Kadin Ara, and he was born on Mars as well." The admiral reached over and paged Kadin. A young man in his mid 30's burst through the door.

"Hi everybody!" he yelled in a voice that likely couldn't get any louder. Victor jumped and nearly tumbled backwards. He regained his balance and acted as if nothing had happened. Kadin hopped into the chair and smiled at them. He then threw his manila folder at Victor, who was just barely able to catch it.

"Lovely, I was hoping to avoid the personality disaster we experienced with the Nadesico," Victor muttered under his breath. He said out loud, "Hello Mr. Ara. I trust you have the training to back up your request to be instated on the battleship Samayahita."

Kadin looked around the room and then looked back at Victor. "Yeah, I have everything you need. Just take a look see in that there folder right there that you're holding." He pointed to the folder emphatically.

Victor sighed and opened the folder. His eyes went wide. "You worked with Nergal at the pole?" he gasped.

Kadin smiled and closed his eyes proudly. "Yeah, that's right. They would have been lost without me." He folded his arms and sat back in his chair. The admiral leaned over towards Victor. He attempted to glance into the folder when Victor pulled it away and closed it.

"Admiral, of course you understand that some of Nergal's research on Mars is top secret. Even though earthlings no longer hold Mars, it is vital that the research remains secret until we can analyze it." He turned to Kadin. "As for you, you are still under your oath of silence. You are not to tell anybody about what went on under the Martian polar ice cap. Other than that, you have the job. It was nice getting to know you."

Kadin stood up, grabbed Victor's hand, and shook it enthusiastically. He then turned and ran out of the door. The admiral laughed again. "You meet all kinds in this job, don't you?" Victor turned his head, disgusted. The admiral looked at his papers. "As for the maintenance crew and security chief, we do not need to set up interviews. Their names are on the dossier Nergal was provided with. If I remember correctly, the chief maintenance man was named Douglas MacGyver Valentine. The security chief was named John Massimo. They are both very qualified for their fields and were hand picked by a joint cooperation between the Chairman of Nergal and the commander of the UEAF. Of course, you will remain on board the Samayahita as a Nergal liaison, and I will be placed on board as an advisor to the captain. Do you think those crew members will really work out?"

Victor was lost in his own thoughts. He jumped back to reality just in time to hear the last sentence of the admiral's one-sided conversation. "Oh, yes of course." Victor stood up. "I guess I'll see you in a few weeks for crew training."

The admiral stood and shook Victor's hand. "Yes, I'll see you then. Victor left the room with the stack of folders he received from the crewmembers. The admiral sat back down and paged his secretary. "Follow Mr. Nakasone for me, but be discreet about it. I want to know where he goes after he leaves this building." The woman on the other end acknowledged his request and the line went dead. The admiral thought to himself, "_If he goes directly to the Chairman's private quarters instead of back to Nergal's main office building, this is going to be a long and complicated couple of months_."

As he had expected, an hour later the admiral received word that Mr. Nakasone had entered a small, nondescript building near the edge of the Nergal research estate. That was where the Chairman liked to meet his employees when the situation demanded the utmost secrecy. "Just great," the admiral thought to himself.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Please give me a review or two. I can assume you probably didn't enjoy the first chapter since it was mainly character introductions, but it will get better, I promise.


	2. Fake Fire, Fake Ice

"After the Nadesico entered the Chulip on Mars, it literally vanished from the universe. Needless to say, the United Earth Forces were not too thrilled with the whole thing. They had wanted the Nadesico for their own use against the invading aliens known as the Jovian lizards. That brings us to where we are now. Nergal Heavy Industries is doing penance for sending the Nadesico out of this universe by building the UEAF a phase transition core battleship, the Samayahita. And that's where I come in. It's the duty of the science officer to inform the audience what has happened recently. Or maybe it's just that the author of this story has an fanboyish obsession with Ruri Hoshino."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

A Destiny Star

Episode 2: Fake Fire, Fake Ice

Two weeks after Victor Nakasone, the Nergal liaison for the UEAF, had interviewed the crew of the battleship, the crew met in a Nergal simulation laboratory to practice strategic maneuvers and teamwork. Victor and Admiral Minamako were standing in the lobby of the Nergal Heavy Industries main office. It was 8:00 a.m. and so far none of the crew had shown up. The tests were scheduled to begin promptly at 8:00, but as the minute hand inched past the 12 on the clock, none had shown up. Victor was angrily tapping his foot against the ground, and the admiral was just leaning against the wall with a neutral expression on his face.

"Where the hell are they?" Victor shouted at last.

"Calm down Mr. Nakasone, it's only 8:03," the admiral soothed. "This is only a test, right? It's not like they are going into actual combat. A few minutes won't make a large difference."

"The hell it won't," Victor muttered under his breath. The admiral pretended not to hear. "Anyway, these people are supposed to be soldiers. It's not like they're civilians like the crew of the Nadesico. I would have expected better of them."

No sooner had he finished his sentence than Kadin Ara, the scientist contracted to the Samayahita, had kicked open the glass door at the entrance to the lobby. The door swung back, hit the wall, and shattered into a million sharp pieces.

"Oh my God," Victor sighed. "If this isn't the worst mistake I have ever made, I don't know what is." Kadin walked over and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry about it amigo," he said to Victor. "Nergal has more money than all of Asia. They should be able to pay for that little door." He grabbed Victor's shoulder and spun him around to look into his eyes. "Do you see what I mean?" he asked loudly. Victor nodded his head unhappily. The admiral smiled at the unusual show. "Anyway, I'm ready to begin the crazy tests," Kadin continued. Victor groaned and worked his way out of Kadin's grip.

"The only thing around here that's crazy is you," he replied angrily. "Anyway, you're the only one who has shown up. We're still waiting for everyone else."

"Here I am," someone said from behind them. The three of them turned to see Captain Dan Shroads standing in the doorway. "By the way, you're door is broken."

The admiral smiled and Victor sighed. "This is too much to bear right now." He looked at the captain. "Why the hell are you so late?" he shouted.

"Well I arrived at the building and was just about to park when I realized I'd forgotten my uniform at home. It was only a half-hour drive, but it was long enough that I ended up being late. I'm terribly sorry."

Victor sighed again. "It doesn't matter. You and Kadin are the only two who have shown up."

"Hello!" Kadin yelled loudly. "I'm the scientist that they got to work on your ship!" Dan smiled slightly at the outburst. Kadin ran up to Dan and shook his hand violently. Dan couldn't help but find him amusing. "I'm a scientist!" Kadin yelled as he let go of Dan's hand and stood proudly in front of him. Victor muttered something about not being able to deal with this and slid into a chair.

Seconds later, Sosuke Vakia, the communications officer, popped his head in the door. "Sorry I'm late. I was on the phone with my girlfriend. It seems she has a top secret assignment today and she just wanted to let me know it may be a while before she can see me again." Victor just waved his hand in the air acknowledging that he heard Sosuke. Sosuke joined Kadin and Dan in a conversation about how effective distortion fields were in certain conditions.

The next crewmember to arrive was Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, the science officer. "Sorry, I'm not a morning person," he said as he slowly walked in and sat in a chair. Dan walked up and introduced himself. Hitoshi shook his hand and the four crew members that had arrived began a conversation about the war.

"Hello, I'm here," another voice said. It was Hana Sazeda, the helmswoman. Sosuke turned around immediately, filled with surprise.

"Hana, this is your secret assignment?" he asked. She was just as surprised to see him.

"Yes, I'm the helmswoman of the Samayahita," she said, walking over and embracing him.

"I'm the communications officer and backup pilot," Sosuke replied, returning her hug.

"I'm so glad we won't be apart for the war," Hana said. Dan cleared his throat nervously. Hana blushed and let go of Sosuke. She turned and bowed to the admiral and said, "I'm sorry I'm so late. I was saying goodbye to Sosuke because I believed I wouldn't see him until the war was over. Fortunately, he's a member of the crew so I won't be far from him." She returned to his embrace and they sat in a chair together.

"Well, at least it seems my crew will get along well together," Dan said, relieved.

Victor began to get aggravated. "We're still missing our executive officer!" he shouted angrily.

Kato ran through the door at breakneck speed. "Sorry I'm late everyone!" he said, out of breath. "Last night my girlfriend Lara came over. I didn't sleep much, and my alarm's batteries went dead. I guess it doesn't matter now, though, since I'm here, right?" Everyone else agreed with him except Victor, who was sulking in his chair. He jumped up quickly after they had all quieted down.

"Alright everyone! Now that you're all _finally_ here, it's time to begin the test," he said excitedly. "This is a test on how well you will work together. As the crew of the most powerful battleship under the control of the UEAF, you will need to work well together in order to utilize your power to the fullest extent. I was listening to your conversations while we were waiting for the rest of the crew to show up, and it's good to hear you have so much in common. It seems you have similar interests, which should help nurture your friendships. This is good, since you will be spending an undetermined amount of time in each other's companies."

"What he failed to mention is that we're also stuck with him, and none of us like him that much," Hitoshi whispered to Kadin. Kadin laughed extremely conspicuously, drawing Victor's attention. He glanced, but chose to ignore him.

"Now, you will all be placed in a mock up of the Samayahita's bridge section. From there, you will be put through the simulation. You will also meet your Aestivalis and Delphinium pilots soon. That will be arranged before the simulation begins. They have already arrived and will be participating in the simulation along with you. This simulation is very real, and you will be judged on how well you do as a crew. It is expected that you order your Aestivalis and Delphinium pilots to the best of your extent. It is also expected that no matter what may happen, you do not allow one of your crewmembers to become injured or die. In real life, we hope none of you would intentionally allow one of your allies to die, so don't do it here either. I believe that's everything I needed to brief you on. Please follow me and the admiral this way." Victor waved his hand in front of him and the small group began to walk down the hallway.

It wasn't long before they reached the end of the hallway. There was a door behind Victor marked "Sim Room." "Behind there is the mock up of the Samayahita's bridge," Victor said. "The seven pilots have already arrived inside. They will introduce themselves and then head off to the pilot simulator room where they will join your battle from there."

Victor opened the door and the small group walked in. They saw seven other people already inside. "Please introduce yourselves," Victor said. The first pilot went to speak, but before he could, Kadin shouted out.

"Hi Theo!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He ran over and grabbed Theo by the shoulders and shook him around a little. Everyone but Victor found this amusing.

Victor moved in and broke the two of them up. "Do you know each other?" he asked.

Kadin waved his hands in front of him. "Oh sure, we go way back. We had the same parents and we were brothers. As a matter of fact, we still are, I think," he replied, putting his hand to his chin and staring off into space. Everyone laughed except Victor, who was seething.

"Let's just hope for everyone's sake that he isn't as strange as you are," he replied through barred teeth.

Theo walked forward and gave his brother a high-five. "Anyway," he said, "I'm Theo Ara. I'm a Delphinium pilot and Kadin's brother. We were both born on Mars and moved to Earth about a year before the war began. I'm 19 years old and my favorite dish is the Mars Bowl."

Victor nodded for Theo to return to the line. The next pilot walked forward. "My name is Shin Hiradeki," he said. "I was born in Japan 20 years ago, and I'm a huge fan of every Anime. My favorite is Gekigangar." Victor's ears pricked up. He whispered something to the admiral and then turned back to the pilots. He nodded to Shin to go back into the line.

The third pilot walked forward. "My name is Saito Hajime," he said. "I grew up on the moon, but me and my fiancée moved to Earth as soon as the war began. It's a good thing we did, because a Chulip fell on our old dome city. Everyone who remained was killed." Saito returned to the line and the next pilot came forth.

"My name is Nicole Viray, and I am 19 years old. I used to live in Southeast Asia, but now I live in Japan. I had been working for Nergal when the war started, and they trained me as a pilot. I am currently on loan to the UEAF." She returned to the line and the next pilot moved forward.

"My name is Eri Osato. I've always lived in western North America. I am 20 years old. I joined the war when my parents were killed by a falling Chulip." She looked kind of sad, and then stepped back into the line. The next one stepped forward.

"My name is Neji Kaminayo. I am 23 years old." He took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirt. "I really don't know what compelled me to join the war, but here I am. I'll do my best." He stepped back into the line, and the last pilot moved forward.

"My name is Jonathan Yergan. I am the second of the two Delphinium pilots. I am 19 years old, and I love giant robots with a passion."

Victor sighed. "Okay you seven, it's time for you to report to the robot training room. We're about to begin the simulation."

The seven pilots filed out of the door on the far side of the room. Victor turned to the bridge crew. "I assume you all know where to go. You have 15 minutes to prepare yourself and your stations before the simulation begins." Victor left the room and slammed the door behind him.

"He doesn't seem to thrilled that we're all a bunch of nut jobs," Hana said quietly. Everyone in the room laughed lightly.

The "bridge" of the Samayahita was pretty typical of the bridges of battleships built by Nergal. The bridge was divided into tiers. On the first tier, any non-bridge personnel could stand or sit and observe. There were consoles scattered around the edge of the first tier for officers to assist during combat situations. About two vertical feet and a wall separated the second tier from the first. The wall had three consoles on the back. The communications officer sat on the right, the science officer sat in the middle, and the helmsman/woman sat on the left, assuming you were facing the rear wall. The top tier had a single control panel in the center and chairs off to the left and right. The control panel was for the captain, and the left chair was for the executive officer. The right chair was not assigned to any particular person, but it was assumed that the admiral would sit there. It was not very dissimilar from the Nadesico's bridge, except the room was slightly larger and the view window stretched farther around the perimeter of the room.

Dan took his position on the top tier in front of his console. Kato joined him, sitting nearby in the executive officer chair. The admiral stood to the left of the captain to observe. Hitoshi seated himself in the science officer chair. Sosuke sat on Hitoshi's left in the communications officer seat, and Hana sat on his right as the helmswoman. Sosuke and Hana sent a few blown kisses across to each other, making Hitoshi, who was right in the middle, feel very uncomfortable. Kadin Ara stood to the right of the captain as an observer. Kadin's job was to explain anything and everything that he was asked to by any of the bridge crew.

Dan spoke up. "I know this is the first time we've actually met each other, but I'm confident that we will do well as a crew. Just talking to you those few minutes made me believe that we will make an excellent team, not to mention good friends. I just want to wish everyone the best of luck." Dan paused impressively. "Now, who's ready to go and kick some simulated butt?" The bridge crew called their affirmatives to the captain. "Then let's get everything set up. Please introduce yourselves to the controls. Hitoshi, get acquainted with the computer system. Sosuke, please check the simulated frequencies to familiarize yourself with the real life ones. Hana, familiarize yourself with the maneuvering controls and secondary weapons systems. Kato, Kadin, please be prepared to give me your advice, opinions, and explanations."

Everyone set about to the tasks given to them. Sosuke was able to familiarize himself with the communication frequencies quickly and easily. Hana checked the positions of the controls, which were slightly different from a standard battleship. Most noticeably was the fact that the ship was faster and more powerful. Hitoshi was rather surprised that the computers he had been trained all his life to operate were actually quite sentient. This computer wasn't as smart or powerful as the one that would be on the real Samayahita, but it was still very powerful.

Victor came on over the loudspeaker. "The test will now begin. This test will take place on a simulated arctic environment. That's all the information you need for now. Aestivalis pilots, just keep in mind that there won't be much traction for your land frames, so be careful."

The view screens that surrounded the bridge came to life. The scene was a snowy landscape not unlike Antarctica.

"Captain," Hitoshi said almost immediately, "there is a Jovian Chulip approaching from one-o'clock high. The computer is unable to determine whether or not there is a danger of collision. I suggest we move before impact."

"That's a good idea," Dan replied. "Miss Hana, please move us to a safe distance."

Hana cracked her knuckles and began pressing buttons. "Here's a map of the safest areas to move us to," Hitoshi said. A window popped up in midair and Hitoshi slid it over to her. She glanced at it and finished pressing buttons. The "ship" took off like a shot.

"Damn," Kato said. "I didn't know a ship could move that fast. If this simulation is accurate, we're going to be in control of an immensely powerful vehicle."

Hana pressed a few more buttons and the ship spun around 180-degrees and came to a grinding halt. On the simulated screen, the Chulip slammed into the ground at terminal velocity. "I'm detecting numerous arthropod fighters streaming from the Chulip," Hitoshi said. "Should I tell the Aestivalis to launch now?"

"Yes, please do that. While you're at it, can you get a count on how many Jovians are out there?"

Hitoshi opened a few more windows around him. He then closed them and opened seven windows that showed the seven pilots. "I guess that since this is a ground battle, Theo and Jonathan won't be able to launch, but the rest of you are supposed to go now." Shin Hiradeki gave a thumbs up and closed the communications window. Saito Hajime nodded his head and signed off. Nicole Viray said, "I'm now launching," before closing the window. Neji just closed the window without saying anything. Eri smiled and waved her hand in front of her before closing the window.

"All five Aestivalis have now launched," Sosuke said as the simulated Aestivalis flew past the bridge.

"I have an approximate number of Jovian robot fighters," Hitoshi said. "I think there are about 100 total. They don't have shielding, but they have more maneuverability than the real thing."

Kato stood up. "Tell two pilots to approach from the left, and two pilots to approach from the right. One pilot needs to run right down the middle and fire into the cloud of arthropods in order to draw their attention. By doing this, we should be able to surround and destroy them easily."

A window appeared in front of the bridge crew with Shin's face on it. "I'll head down the middle, but the other guys need to cover me," he said.

A second window with Neji appeared. "I'll do my best. Since the Jovians don't have shields in this sim, they won't be able to block our machine gun fire, but they are faster than usual. Make sure you compensate as you aim your shots." The two windows disappeared.

Victor smiled to himself. He was monitoring the whole thing from the other room. "Let's see how well the Gekigangar fan handles his Aestivalis."

Shin flew right down the center and fired up into the cluster of Jovian arthropods. "Let's see how you like this!" he said loudly to himself. He destroyed about five of them, but drew the attention of all of them. They all began flying straight towards him. "Ah damn it! I could really use some cover now!"

"We're not into position yet," Nicole said over the communicator. "Give us about 30 more seconds."

"Don't bother to wait until you're in position," Dan called out. "Divert their attention from Hiradeki. That's what teamwork is all about!" Four windows opened up with the four other pilots' faces. They each affirmed the message and closed their windows again. As soon as the windows closed, the four pilots that were to the side of the swarm began to fire. This drew the attention of the enemy off of Shin and on to the other four pilots. Many of the arthropods began to fire missiles at the Aestivalis. Fortunately the Aestivalis pilots were easily able to dodge the missiles, or shoot the missiles out of the sky. Now that all five Aestivalis were in the fight, the swarm of arthropods was dropping rapidly.

Dan spoke up. "I want the gravity blast cannon fired at the Chulip. We can't allow any more Jovians through."

Hitoshi opened a few windows and then closed them again. "Yes sir. Gravity blast cannon online. Sosuke, could you tell the Aestivalis to clear the way for the cannon? I'd rather not kill anyone on purpose, but if it's an accident then I have no problem with it." Hitoshi smiled and Sosuke laughed.

"All Aestivalis pilots, clear the way for the gravity blast cannon," Sosuke commanded.

"Hold on a sec! I've got a Jovian right up my ass over here!" Shin shouted over the communications link. Everyone watched intently out the window. A "grasshopper" unit was chasing Shin across the tundra. He quickly jumped into the air, did a flip, fired his arm into the grasshopper unit, and threw it into the dwindling swarm of enemies. Afterwards, he landed on his feet and moved to a safe location under the ship.

"He certainly shows off a lot, but at least he's got enough skills to back himself up," Hana said as she steered the bow of the ship towards the Chulip. "Chulip at 12 o'clock. How's the gravity blast cannon doing?"

Hitoshi opened a few windows and sent one to the captain, one to Kato, and one to Hana. "It's all ready. Should I fire now?"

Dan cracked a smile. "Go for it," he said. Hitoshi placed his hands on the computer console. The nano-implants on his hands glowed as Hitoshi took control of the ship's functions.

"Now firing the gravity blast cannon. With any luck, we should all probably brace for impact from the exploding Chulip." Everyone on the bridge heard the simulated sound of the gravity blast cannon charging up. It was just about to fire when Hitoshi interrupted. "Uh-oh..."

Kato raised an eyebrow. "'Uh-oh?' Why 'Uh-oh?'"

Hitoshi looked up at him. "There's a huge distortion field coming through the Chulip. I can't guarantee that the gravity blast will hit before the distortion field comes through."

Kadin looked ahead. "Whoa! It's a Jovian battle cruiser!" he said excitedly. "The size of the distortion field and the signature of bose particles it releases is unmistakable." He finished and laughed crazily.

"Let's just keep our fingers crossed that we hit it before it comes through," Hitoshi replied. "We aren't going to get many chances to fire." He paused as he concentrated on his task. Finally, he announced, "Gravity blast cannon fire in three...two...one...now!" The area under the bridge glowed, and the black, static filled beam fired from the barrel on the underside of the ship. Everyone held their breath. Half of the remaining grasshoppers were destroyed before the gravity blast made contact. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the beam struck the Chulip. Everyone watched as the beam impacted, and the dissipated.

"It didn't work?" Sosuke asked loudly. Everyone watched the Chulip intently. Seconds after the blast hit the Chulip, the location of impact began to collapse. Less than a second later, the entire Chulip exploded. The five Aestivalis pilots finished the final grasshoppers and everyone became calm again.

"Please give a status report," Dan said to Hitoshi.

"It seems there has been no damage to either ourselves or the Aestivalis," he replied. "I'd say we did fairly well, wouldn't you Captain?"

Dan smiled. "Yeah! Not to brag, but we owned those aliens."

Kadin replied with a loud, "Whoa and stuff!" Everyone laughed.

"It's certainly going to be fun hanging out with you guys, despite the fact that we'll be in battles most of the time," Sosuke said to the rest of them.

"Uh-oh," Hitoshi said again. Everyone looked at him.

A communication window with Saito Hajime's face popped up. "Now what is it?" he asked.

"It's another Chulip. It's going to impact about 10 kilometers away off our port side. Captain, we need orders."

Dan glanced down at Hana, who was already looking up at him. She turned back to the controls and began aiming the battleship towards the burning object entering the atmosphere. The ship slowly began to move, but was rapidly picking up speed.

A new window popped up in front of Hitoshi. "Fifteen seconds until impact."

Dan looked down at Sosuke. "Recall the Aestivalis. They won't be able to keep up with us when we start moving." Sosuke complied and told the five pilots to return to the hangar as soon as possible.

"Impact in three...two...one..." Hitoshi began. When the Chulip finally did land, the sound of impact filled the bridge.

"How long until we can fire another gravity blast shot?" Dan asked.

"It will be another minute or so, but I doubt we'll have time to worry about that," Hitoshi replied. He finished his sentence as the Chulip began to split open. "It's the same bose particle signature as before," he said. "Like Mr. Ara said earlier, the distortion field is the same size as one of a large Jovian cruiser. Not only that, but the Chulip is probably not going to finish there. As long as it's open, the Chulip will probably spawn several battleships."

Dan looked at Kato and then looked back at the Chulip. "Raise the distortion field, Hitoshi. We're certainly not going to tackle that thing defenseless." The control panel underneath Hitoshi's hands lit up and a new window popped up.

"Distortion fields stable at 93 Captain," Hitoshi said. "Gravity blast cannon fully charged, but the Jovians have a distortion field comparable to our own. I don't think the gravity blast cannon would do any good against it. Fortunately, theirs won't be able to pierce our distortion field."

The purple Jovian battleship fully emerged from the Chulip and turned towards the simulated battleship. The front of it began to glow yellow. Seconds later, a large yellow gravity blast was fired from it. The gravity blast ricocheted off of the distortion field of the simulated Samayahita. "Distortion field down by 7," Hitoshi said.

"It's time to re-launch the Aestivalis. Sosuke, please tell them to head out," Dan said quickly. Sosuke complied with the orders and the five Aestivalis reappeared on the view screen from beneath the ship. "If you can draw their grasshoppers away from the Samayahita, you'll buy us some time to figure something out."

The Aestivalis took off again. The Jovian battleship began to launch grasshoppers, just as Dan suspected. The Aestivalis hit the ground and began firing at the newly spawned arthropod units. The grasshoppers were dropping fairly quickly, but the Aestivalis were having a hard time dodging the fire that the Jovians were dealing.

"Massive increase in bose particle emission, Captain," Hitoshi said quickly. "Another battleship is coming through the Chulip." As the battleship emerged from the Chulip, both ships fired gravity blast cannons at the Samayahita. "Distortion field at 78."

Dan turned to look at hana. "Quickly retreat a short distance. When we've gone far enough, I will instruct everyone on what to do next."

Sosuke turned around to look up at Dan. "And what of the Aestivalis?"

"We're not going far. They can continue their battle there."

The window showed them the ship turning away from the Jovian ships. The simulated landscape slowly slid under the window.

"Where are you guys going?" A window popped up in front of the bridge crew showing Eri's confused face.

"We'll be back. Try not to die." Hitoshi smiled as he closed the communication line. "As you expected, Captain, the Jovian ships are following us."

Kato stood up and looked down to Hana. "In 30 seconds, please turn the ship in a long arc. If the Jovians keep following us, we should have a clear shot at the Chulip with the gravity blast cannon without the enemy ships' distortion fields blocking it." Hana began to enter the data for the turn. A window popped up in front of the bridge showing the angle at which the ship was turning.

"So far the Jovians are oblivious," Sosuke said. "I just hope it stays that way."

Nearly a minute into the curve, the Jovians must have figured out what they were doing, because the Samayahita was pelted with gravity blast rounds. Hitoshi looked up at Dan. "The distortion fields are still holding at 60 Captain, but they're beginning to become unstable. There are too many shots hitting too rapidly in the exact same place. If there is a breach, the Jovians are going to hit our phase transition engines and we're going to fail. If that happens, that obnoxious Nergal lackey is going to laugh at us and I'm going to want to kick his ass across this mock up of the Samayahita's bridge. So for his sake, please order the strike soon."

Dan smiled. "Just a few more seconds and the Jovians won't be able to get in front of us. Victor won't have any just cause to laugh at us as long as we stay focused." The communication window in the middle of the room showed that the ship had almost turned fully around. Everyone watched anxiously as the angle between the gravity blast cannon and the Chulip lowered. "On my mark, fire the gravity blast cannon. Three...two...one...mark!"

Three windows popped up in front of Hitoshi and then disappeared. "Now firing." The nano-implants on the back of his hands shone the colors of the rainbow. The sounds of the gravity blast cannon powering up filled the bridge. A second later, the black, static filled beam shot out from under the bridge and glided through the air. It struck the Chulip dead center, and the Chulip exploded.

"Chulip destroyed, and distortion fields holding at 58," Hitoshi reported. "The Jovians still continue to pursue us, but appear to be out of grasshoppers. Their distortion fields are at over 75 power, and our gravity blast cannon won't be charged up for a few minutes. What should we do?"

Kato spoke up. "We'll use the Aestivalis to slip under their distortion fields and damage their phase transition engines. They'll crash and we'll be able to finish them off with the gravity blast cannon."

"How do we get the Aestivalis through the distortion field?" Sosuke asked.

Kadin jumped over the top of the tier and landed right next to Sosuke. He grabbed him in a headlock and a window popped up in front of them displaying a Jovian battleship with a distortion field. "At a certain angle, and Aestivalis can cut through a distortion field using its blade weapon!" he shouted. "It's just like re-entry, 'cept without fire!" He let go of Sosuke and climbed back up to the upper tier of the bridge rapidly.

"Well, that sounds like a good plan," Dan said. "Hitoshi, please have the computer figure the angle required to cut through the distortion field. We need to get this information to the Aestivalis."

Hitoshi's nano-implants glowed and several windows popped up around him. "Here you go, Sosuke," he said, sliding one of them over to him.

Sosuke opened five windows with the faces of the Aestivalis pilots. "I'm sending you the data now. You're going to have to try to cut through their distortion fields and attack their PT engines. If you hit the distortion fields with your blades at this angle, you should be able to break through them."

Neji's Aestivalis took the lead. The other four followed as he streaked across the simulated landscape. "Shin and Eri will attack the battleship closest to our position, and me, Nicole, and Saito will attack the one closest to our ship." The other pilots acknowledged and the two groups split up.

Shin and Eri both boosted into the air as high as they could go. After reaching the apex of their jump, they approached from both sides of the battleship and boosted forward. They slowly pushed their way through the distortion field until they broke through. They cut across the phase transition engines and began dropping to the ground. The PT engines of the Jovian battleship exploded and the ship dropped to the ground, exploding violently.

"All right!" Shin said, boosting to slow his descent to the ground. "I bet you can't top that Neji!"

The other Aestivalis team also leapt high into the air. Nicole approached on the left side of the battleship, Saito Hajime on the right, and Neji dropped from the top. Nicole and Saito pushed forward and carved their way into the distortion field. Neji dropped straight down and used gravity to push his blade through the top of the field. Saito and Nicole cut through the PT engines and the distortion field collapsed as a result. Neji drove his blade into the top of the ship and then jumped to the side. The Samayahita turned around and faced the final Jovian battleship. "Here comes gravity blast cannon, take three!" Hitoshi called out as he began the firing sequence. The sound of the gravity blast cannon charging up filled the room. Once again, the black beam fired from beneath the ship. It hit the Jovian ship dead center, causing it to explode in a huge ball of fire.

"I hope that's the end of the Chulips," Sosuke sighed. Everyone murmured agreements.

"Well, at least we passed the simulation. I enjoyed working with you guys...and girl," Dan said. "I suppose we can recall the Aestivalis, but if the simulation is over, then I guess that's really a moot point."

Sosuke recalled the Aestivalis for form's sake and the pilots all complied. The display that surrounded the front of the bridge shut down, leaving only a gray screen. Victor opened the door and walked in. The seven pilots were right behind him.

"You've all done wonderful!" Victor said emphatically. Captain Shroads, you're a natural leader. Mr. Fatomiyo, you're a brilliant tactician. Miss Hana, you're a wonderful helmswoman. Mr. Vakia, you're a fast and able communications officer. Mr. Tsumayagi, you're a powerful science officer. Mr. Ara, you're a wise scientist. You're the best, and you have passed with flying colors."

"What about us?" Shin asked.

Victor turned to the row of pilots behind him. "You're all such able pilots! Who would have guessed that such powerful pilots are only now discovered at this point in the war? I'm very impressed at your performance." Victor shook Shin and Neji's hands and then turned back to the bridge crew. "This will be all of the training required for today. I expect to see you at the same time tomorrow to resume combat training."

Victor bowed to everyone and walked off of the mock up, leaving the crew to show themselves out of the building. The admiral left without a word almost immediately, but the rest stayed behind and talked. It wasn't long before the subject strayed to everyone's favorite Nergal lackey.

"It's fairly obvious that that Nakasone guy is up to something," Shin said. "Not to mention the fact that he's got something against Gekigangar. Go figure, huh?"

"I have to admit that I'd be hard pressed to find a time when Nergal wasn't up to something," Dan sighed. "But because of the fact that this is their building and it's probably wired for sound, I'm not going to elaborate." As soon as Shin heard that, he slammed his hand over his mouth, regretting saying what he had said.

"It's not like they can fire us though. We're working for the UEAF, not Nergal," Sosuke said confidently.

"Nevertheless," Kato said quietly, "they have a great influence over the UEAF, and I'm beginning to think that you-know-who has a great influence over Admiral Minamako."

"If we're going to complain, we should probably do it outside where there is a smaller chance we're being spied on," Hitoshi suggested. The rest of the crew agreed and began to walk out of the building. Victor walked up to the group on their way out.

"Just one moment," he said. Everyone held their breath. "I needed to give the captain this dossier. It gives the names and some information about the other people on the crew. I think he should look it over during the next few weeks." The group eased up after he finished his sentence. Dan accepted the folder and gave his thanks. Victor watched as they exited the building through the door that Kadin had broken earlier.

"_Those fools have no idea what's going on here_," Victor thought to himself. "_We're even playing that high ranking admiral for a fool. They may suspect I'm up to something, but they have no clue how big it's going to be_."

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Pretending To Be Like Those Who Came Bef...

"Crew training began on that day two months ago. We've received a great deal of praise from Victor Nakasone, the Nergal liaison. Now that two months of training has passed us by this quickly, we're nearing the time in which we join the war. Even as we train, we are fighting a silent war with Nergal, who on the outside appear to be following the agreement they had made with the UEAF, but are obviously up to something. I know I speak for the rest of the crew when I say I want to find out what in the solar system they're up to."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

**A Destiny Star**

**Episode 3: Pretending to be Like Those Who Came Before**

Victor Nakasone was sitting nervously across from his idol. The man in front of him had a great deal to do with what happened in the commercial world. Victor would have done anything to put himself in that man's good graces. Not only that, but he would have done anything to be that man. The man looked up at him.

"Tomorrow is the day, Mr. Nakasone," he said. "Tomorrow is the day that the ND-002 Cosmos is launching to enter the war at last."

"Yes Mr. Chairman," Victor replied obediently. "And in about one week, the Samayahita will be completed and launched as well, right?"

The chairman of Nergal stood up. "That's right, but I'm not overly concerned about it. The UEAF is about to learn that just because they have a phase transition core battleship doesn't mean they can stop relying on us to keep them ahead of the Jovians. That battleship cannot win the war on its own. Even the Nadesico, the most powerful ship built thus far in this war, failed to reclaim Mars. Of course that was partly due to Captain Misumaru's incompetence, but we're not here to point fingers." The chairman grabbed a glass of water from the cooler and sat back down. He looked directly at Victor. "Nevertheless, we need to get Mars back. The secret at Mars's north pole is too big to let the Jovians get their hands on it. If they manage to locate it and claim it for themselves, this war will be over and we will have lost, and that cannot happen. That is why your job is so vital."

"And that is why you're outfitting the Samayahita with the most powerful gravity blast cannon in the solar system?" Victor asked. The chairman laughed obnoxiously.

"The Gravity Blast Cannon II wasn't put in there for that reason only. The UEAF wanted some extra distortion field cracking power in there, so we gave it to them."

"But the firing rate for the Gravity Blast Cannon II is lower than the original, isn't it?" Victor asked.

"That's why the ship has the foils," the chairman explained. "When the foils are retracted, the gravity blast cannon is normal. When the foils are released, however, the deadly Gravity Blast Cannon II is active. It's nothing short of ingenious." Victor nodded his head in agreement. "At any rate," the chairman continued, "you're free to go. Today will be the final and most important test in the training regiment. Be sure they don't fail." Victor rose and bowed. He then turned and left the room.

"_The chairman sure is confident that the crew will be able to pass this test_," Victor thought to himself. "_They've passed 35 out of the 39 tests they've done so far. Maybe he's right_." Victor walked into the lobby of the Nergal building just as he had done on the first day. This time, though, everyone was there on time, as they had been every day after the first. And this time, there weren't any small fires or broken glass as a result of Dr. Ara's antics. Victor took this as a good sign. "Good morning everyone!" he called to the crew. Hitoshi and Shin looked up from their card game.

"You're late today Victor," Shin laughed. Victor smiled at the reversal of fortune on the last day of training. On the first day of training, the others were late. On the last day, he was the one who was late.

"Today is the most challenging test you will face. This test is not designed for you to pass. It is an endurance test in Mars space," Victor explained. The admiral turned to look at him, but Victor ignored him. He was about to continue explaining the test when the admiral interrupted.

"Nergal will not be going back to Mars until the UEAF is able to take it back," the admiral said sternly. "That was part of the agreement."

Victor waved his hand innocently. "Don't worry admiral. We're just putting the crew to the test with the most difficult situation we could devise. Since we don't know anything about the Jovians forces around Jupiter, it would have been silly to build a simulation around that. We built this test around the Martian Jovian force because it's the biggest known concentration of Jovians around." The admiral seemed satisfied enough and Victor was able to continue with his briefing. "As I said, this is an endurance test. You aren't actually expected to win this test, but it is timed. You need to survive a certain amount of time in order for this to be counted as a successful run."

"Exactly how long are we supposed to survive?" Neji asked.

"If you live for thirty minutes then you pass. If you enter Mars's atmosphere, you get bonus points," Victor informed them. The admiral just stared at him. Victor pretended he didn't see him.

The group filed into the simulation room as they had done many times before, and the pilots went past the bridge and into the robot simulation room. Victor was about to leave when he turned around. "I almost forgot," he said, "you have a new weapon to play with. As you know, the ship has a gravity blast cannon, along with two graviton wave cannons on each side, and two more on the front. Also, there is a missile launcher on each side, and the missiles in the tubes on the front of the vessel. Well, Nergal has developed an upgraded version of the gravity blast cannon and it will be installed on the Samayahita. The Gravity Blast Cannon II will be integrated directly into the gravity blast cannon. You will be able to switch between modes by extending a pair of foils. It's more powerful, but has a slower recharge rate. When the foils are closed, the gravity blast cannon functions normally. Hitoshi should have no problem switching between modes using the computer." Victor bowed and left the bridge crew to file into their positions.

"Are we ready to begin?" Dan asked before cueing the start of the simulation. Everyone called his or her affirmatives, and the captain allowed the simulation to commence. The simulated windows became black with the color of space. Near the bottom of the window, the red disk of the planet Mars shown brightly.

"It's Mars," Hitoshi said quietly. Sosuke looked over to him.

"That's right. You told me you were born on Mars," he said to Hitoshi.

Hitoshi turned to him sadly. "I don't remember much about it. After Nergal finished modifying my body, I was sent to Earth for my education. And then the Jovians invaded..." He trailed off and turned back to his console. "I'm sure Kadin and Theo feel the same way." He turned around and looked at Kadin, who was also just staring out of the window. "At any rate," Hitoshi said, "I don't want to spread my depression around the bridge." He smiled. "Let's give them a good show for our final trial performance."

As Hitoshi was about to analyze the situation outside, Kadin dropped down in front of him, scaring him badly. "High five for the Martians!" Kadin shouted, holding his hand up in the air for a high five. Hitoshi laughed weakly and gave him a forced high five. Kadin jumped back up to the upper tier of the bridge and everyone on the bridge began to laugh.

"Okay, let's just see what's going on out there," Hitoshi said at last. "Very interesting. There are a few hundred Jovian battleships in high orbit above Mars. Evidently we're supposed to break through them and enter the atmosphere safely. Fortunately, the gravity blast cannons of these Jovians are far weaker than the ones we've been fighting. As far as the strength of the Jovian battleship gravity blast cannons is concerned, this simulation will be the most accurate one yet. In the past, it seems as though we've only been fighting Nadesico-class vessels that were dressed up as Jovians. I guess we were fortunate that they were training us to overestimate our opponents. Leave it to Nergal to raise the power of the enemy to make sure we don't think they are weak."

"All the better, since it's far better to overestimate an enemy than it is to underestimate one," Dan said. "The zero-G Aestivalis have fields on them, and our Delphinium have long range anti-ship missiles. Not only that, but we also have the Gravity Blast Cannon II on board this time. I'd say we stand a fairly good chance of winning."

"So basically we're pretending to be the Nadesico?" Kato asked. "After all, they ran this exact same mission in real life only about four months ago. Only for them, it was real."

"It doesn't matter," Dan said. "If the Nadesico was able to reach the surface, then we should be able to as well." Dan opened a window displaying Saito Hajime. "You can now launch. Once you're into position, the Delphiniums will fire their anti-ship missiles. Those will create Aestivalis-sized holes in the enemy's distortion field that will allow you to fly through and damage the vessel directly."

"No problem Captain, we're on it," Saito Hajime replied, closing the window.

A window opened in front of Sosuke. "All seven pilots have taken off. The Aestivalis are on point and will be followed by eight anti-ship missiles from the Delphiniums."

Dan looked down at Hitoshi. "Okay, fire the Gravity Blast Cannon II straight into their front line." He turned towards Hana. "Miss Hana, please swing the ship in a 12.5-degree arc in order to inflict more damage on the enemy's line." Both crewmembers quickly began their tasks.

Two windows popped up in front of Hitoshi. "Gravity Blast Cannon II online. The foils are now expanding. Let's see how well our new toy works." Hitoshi smiled as the nano-implants on his hands began to glow. From the "bridge," the crew could see the simulated motion of the foils expanding beneath the main body of the battleship.

"They even pay attention to details like that," Hana commented. "Nergal has more money to waste on these simulations then I thought."

The sound of the Gravity Blast Cannon II charging up filled the bridge. Just before the main shot was fired, two green beams were fired from each foil. The black beam of the Gravity Blast Cannon II followed only a second later. It impacted the line of Jovian battleships, and then began to sweep across them, destroying a great deal of enemies.

Kato was gaping at the scene. "That's the most powerful weapon I've ever seen!" he said. "How long until it's charged up again?"

"About 10 minutes," Hitoshi replied. "If we were in an atmosphere, it would probably take twice as long. Of course, we can fire the regular gravity blast cannon in about five minutes. Not only that, but we still have the smaller turrets and the missiles, so we'll be able to shoot down anything our Aestivalis miss. And our distortion field is at 98, so we're in good shape."

Dan was glad to hear this. "Please tell our Aestivalis to advance while we lay down a cover fire. The Delphiniums will know when to fire their anti-ship missiles."

The Aestivalis finally encountered the front line. Space lit up as the Aestivalis shredded the cloud of grasshoppers. The Jovian battleships began to fire their gravity blast cannons at the Samayahita, but the distortion field was holding steady.

A communications window opened up in front of the bridge crew. "This is Theo. I'm firing my anti-ship missiles now. Make sure the Aestivalis are aware of this so they can be ready to slip under the Jovians' distortion field."

"We've got it under control Theo," Kato said. "Go ahead and fire now." The communications window closed and a Delphinium flew up in front of the battleship. The four missiles that were mounted on the giant robot fired and headed for the Jovian line. In the distance, four small lights flew towards four battleships. The missiles hit the battleships and the small lights flew under the distortion fields of the Jovian ships. Seconds later, the four small lights flew away from the ships and the four Jovian vessels exploded, lighting up the entire bridge with their radiance.

Another communications window popped up, this one with Shin. "How was that for kick-ass robot action?" he shouted.

"Not bad at all," Dan said. "Of course, you really shouldn't be wasting your time telling us something we already know. Actually, Nicole is under enemy fire right now. Why don't you go help her?"

Shin sighed. "Fine, I'm on it." The window closed and the brightest of the five Aestivalis lights boosted rapidly towards the faintest.

Hitoshi smiled. "Uh-oh." It was common knowledge among the crew of the Samayahita that whenever Hitoshi said "Uh-oh" it meant that a Chulip was approaching. It had become somewhat of a joke among the bridge crew, which is why Hitoshi smiled. Dan cracked a smile too.

"Where's it coming from?" he asked the science officer.

"From eight-o-clock, captain," he replied. "It's rapidly decelerating in order to keep from plunging to Mars's surface. I suppose in theory it's possible to somehow speed it up and cause it to pass us up completely. That's probably the best option, since our main gravity blast cannon won't be charged for about two minutes, and the Chulip will be here long before that."

Neji's face appeared on a communications window in front of the bridge crew. "What can I do to keep it moving?" he asked.

"I'm working on that right now," Hitoshi replied. Three windows opened up in front of him. "This should work," he said uncertainly. "I'm sending it to you now." Neji nodded and the window with his face closed.

"What's he going to have to do?" Hana asked.

Hitoshi looked over to her. "If he can fly in front of the Chulip and grab on to it, he may be able to force the nose towards the planet's surface. Of course, there's no guarantee that he'll be able to get off of it in time. I guess that's all part of the fun though." Hana raised an eyebrow and turned her attention to the oncoming Chulip.

Everyone watched as Neji's Aestivalis headed towards the oncoming Chulip. He corrected himself with his verniers and braced himself for the impact. The Chulip crashed into him, and he managed to grab onto it. He ignited his thrusters and pushed the nose of the Chulip towards the large red planet. The Chulip slowly turned towards the surface of Mars, which in Neji's field of vision was becoming uncomfortably close.

"Ah damn it!" he shouted to himself. He opened a communications window to the bridge. "I can't get off the Chulip," he informed them. "We're going too fast for me to push myself off. Thank God this is a simulation or else I'd be screwed. See you after the game's over." He smiled and waved his hand in the air. The communications window closed and the bridge crew watched as the Chulip, Aestivalis and all, began to glow in the atmosphere of Mars. A tiny explosion symbolized the end of the Aestivalis. Everyone was silent.

"Fake or not, that was pretty noble," Hitoshi said quietly. Sosuke and Hana murmured agreement.

Kato stood up. "We're not doing very good. We're only about seven minutes into this thing and we've already lost a pilot. I think we may want to try something new."

Dan looked over to him. "What do you suggest then?"

"I think we should attempt landing."

Everyone looked at him. "How do you propose we do that with one ship. Not to mention the fact that we're severely outnumbered," Sosuke asked.

Kato looked down at him. "What I mean is that we should try to cut straight through their line and pass them all by completely, leaving most of them alive, but unable to catch us."

Hitoshi commented on this. "Is that even possible? They've still got a couple hundred ships facing us. We're only one vessel with four Aestivalis and two Delphiniums left. Not only that, but once we pass them we can't expect them to ignore us as we enter the atmosphere. Plus, once we start moving we're going to need to recall the robots or leave them behind, which wouldn't be very sporting of us."

Kato just looked out the view window. "Trust me," he smiled. Everyone sighed, but agreed to give the strategy a try.

Dan turned to the visage in front of them. "Hitoshi, is the gravity blast cannon almost done charging?"

Hitoshi looked back at him. "Well, the normal gravity blast cannon will be done in one minute, but if we're going to try to smash through their line in one go, we're probably going to want to fire a Gravity Blast Cannon II shot at them."

Dan looked down at the science officer sitting directly below him. "Point taken," he replied, "but what are we going to do in the meantime? We can't risk losing any more Aestivalis. The one we lost will already be a huge deduction from our score."

Hitoshi opened a window and slid it up to the captain. "If we fire all of our missiles and aim them indiscriminately at the Jovian front line, we should be able to collapse a few of their distortion fields and allow our Aestivalis to dissect their ships. Of course, then we'd be out of missiles, but we'll still have the graviton turrets, which should do for now."

Dan shrugged. "If you think that will work. Try to aim them towards the center of their line, though, so we can punch through it when we're ready. Also, make sure you don't blow any friendlies up." Dan began to laugh. Hitoshi opened some windows and began to make the calculations.

"Oh damn, there are so many Jovian battleships that it's hard to focus all of the lock-on signals in the center of their line," Hitoshi said as he continued to talk to the computer.

"Just do your best," Kato encouraged. "As long as the majority of the missiles head there, it's fine."

A new window popped up in front of Hitoshi. "Okay, here go the missiles."

Everyone watched as the missiles flew from their tubes towards the front of the ship. The Aestivalis pilots dodged the missiles as they flew past them. The swarm of missiles finally hit its mark, and the sky lit up with a huge field of explosions.

"All Aestivalis pilots, go and finish off the remains of the Jovians that were within the explosion range," Kato called. The four Aestivalis flew into the area that had second before been a huge ball of fire. Jovian battleships that had had their distortion fields compromised were being destroyed quickly, and ones that had had their fields weakened were also beginning to join those among the destroyed.

Dan called out, "Begin advancing forward. By the time we arrive at the Jovian line, there should be a fair sized hole in it, or at least we hope so." Hana began to enter the necessary information for this maneuver. The ship slowly began to move forward, and the star field began to slide past the window. Dan said, "Continue to fire the gravity wave turrets at their line. How long until the Gravity Blast Cannon II is charged?"

Hitoshi opened a window. "Two minutes, Captain. Jonathan Yergan is now firing his anti-ship missiles. If the Aestivalis successfully destroy all four battleships that will be hit, there will be enough space for us to pass through the Jovian line with minimal success. Doing this is most certainly not recommended, as we will likely be damaged beyond repair or destroyed. We should not move past the Jovians until we've carved their line open with the Gravity Blast Cannon II."

"Acknowledged," Dan said quickly. Are the Aestivalis fairing well as far as Yergan's missiles are concerned?"

Sosuke looked up at him. "Each Aestivalis has reported that they have successfully infiltrated a Jovian battleship's distortion field. It won't be long before those ships are destroyed."

Just as Hitoshi finished his sentence, four battleships exploded in the center of the line. The four bright lights that were the Aestivalis flew away from the explosions, leaving a trail of smaller explosions in their wake as they cut through the cloud of grasshoppers.

A window with Shin's face appeared in front of the bridge. "There's a second wave of grasshoppers coming in from a battalion near the terminator. We're going to be overwhelmed before long. I hope you have a plan somewhere in there!"

Hitoshi opened a few windows. "He's right, this isn't good. Once this second wave arrives, there will be two hundred grasshoppers for every one Aesti and Delphinium out there. Fortunately, there's only one minute until the Gravity Blast Cannon II is fully charged, so we'll be able to blow a hole in their line and run like hell."

Dan looked concerned. "How's the distortion field holding up?"

Hitoshi looked up at him. "It's at 70, but once we fly through the hole we're going to make, they're going to pelt us with everything they have. I really don't want to sound pessimistic, but 70 probably won't be enough for this situation. "

Kato looked down at him. "It'll be plenty, at least as long as we're moving at full speed. How's that coming along anyway, Hana?"

Hana looked up at him. "We're all set. As soon as the Gravity Blast Cannon II fires, we'll begin moving at maximum speed. I hope you know what you're doing." Dan looked over at Kato, who was smiling confidently.

A new window appeared in front of the bridge, squashing the one with Shin out of the way. The new window had the face of Nicole Viray on it. "Are you almost ready?" she asked. "I've got a visual on the next wave of Jovians, and it's not looking good." Dan shot a look down to the science officer on the tier below him.

Hitoshi looked up. "Yes, it's ready. Should I fire now?" Dan nodded, and Hitoshi began the firing sequence. Just like before, two green blasts fired from each foil. Then, the main gravity blast shot fired from the emitter beneath the ship. It impacted the Jovian fleet and destroyed a huge number of them who were both in and around the actual beam of the cannon. The beam dispersed quickly, but battleships that were merely damaged began to explode.

Dan looked down at Sosuke. "Recall the Aestivalis and Delphinium. We're going to Mars." Sosuke followed the orders and the four Aestivalis and two Delphiniums flew to the hangar entry bay in the rear of the ship.

Hana spoke up. "T-minus 10 seconds until phase transition engine burn."

Dan looked at the admiral. "Sir, wouldn't you say it would be a good idea to divert power away from other less necessary systems to the distortion field?" The admiral nodded and Dan turned to Hitoshi. "Where can we suck power from?"

Hitoshi opened a few windows. "Uh, let's see..." He closed those windows and opened several more. It became hard to see him through the swarm of windows. They all closed simultaneously. "If we refrain from sending any more power to the gravity blast cannon, stop firing the graviton cannons, and divert electrical energy from every light in the ship, we can raise the distortion fields from 65 to 85. That's about the best I can do. Any ideas Mr. Ara?"

Kadin stared out the window blankly. After thirty seconds he looked up. "Damned if I know," he shouted. He laughed crazily, and everyone sighed.

"Thirty seconds until we enter the Jovian battle line," Hana announced. The number of yellow beams bouncing off of the distortion field was increasing.

"If this were a real ship, the impact of all of those beams would probably shake the bridge so badly that we couldn't stand," Kato sighed.

The Jovian vessels continued to grow larger in the screen. Less than a minute later, the first Jovian battleship slid out of the left side of the view window. Fewer and fewer Jovian beams were deflecting off of the front of the distortion field as most of the enemy were now behind the fast moving simulated Samayahita.

"It actually looks like we're going to pull this off!" Sosuke exclaimed. Everyone held his or her breath as the last Jovian battleship slid out of the view screen.

"Distortion fields at 50," Hitoshi called out. He opened a window. "I almost forgot. Hana, you'll need this." He slid the window over to her.

"Atmospheric re-entry coordinates?" Hana said out loud. She read them over and began entering them into the console. The ship's nose pointed straight down towards the red planet.

Kato looked down to the second tier and Hitoshi's windows. "We need to hurry," he said. "The distortion fields are beginning to become unstable."

"We're a lot faster than the Jovians, Kato," Hana said, looking up to his level. "We're going to leave their graviton cannon range in about one minute. After that, they won't be able to catch up to us."

Dan looked forward towards the ever-growing planet in front of him. "I just hope the simulation doesn't include a huge force on the surface. Because we needed to use the extra power for the distortion field, our gravity blast cannon won't be ready for when we land. They might destroy us on the surface."

The number of beams hitting the distortion field slowly tapered off. "Now we can route power back to the gravity blast cannon and ease off with our distortion fields for awhile," Hitoshi said, relieved. Some windows popped up around him and he began to analyze them.

"How long until we reach the surface?" Kato asked.

"About six more minutes," Hana replied. "That is, barring any unforeseen surface battleships."

Dan looked over to Kato. "I really don't think Nergal is going to let us off easily. There will definitely be something down there that we're not going to like. You must be sick of hearing it by now, but I need to ask. Hitoshi, how long until the gravity blast cannon is charged?"

He looked over at one of his windows. "I can't really give an exact number since so many different systems are being switched on and off right now, but I can give you the satisfaction of knowing that it will be done before we encounter a surface Jovian fleet."

Seconds after Hitoshi completed his sentence, the window ahead was filled with thousands of tiny sparkling points of light. Kadin screamed, "Nano-machines! We're all going to die!" Everyone looked at him, confused, but chose to ignore him for now. Kadin just laughed at his own insanity.

The admiral turned to Dan and Kato. "We may need to re-launch the Aestivalis once we reach the surface."

Dan was about to say something, but then stopped. "That reminds me, how long into the simulation are we?"

Sosuke looked at his watch. "We're actually just over 30 minutes into it. Does that mean we can quit now?"

Dan looked at him. "Let's just keep going for now. I guess we aren't supposed to quit until we blow up or land safely."

"Speaking of landing safely," Hitoshi said, "there are about 30 Jovian battleships waiting for us in our landing area. The Chulip that ran Neji over is also in the area, but it didn't survive re-entry because of its odd angle of approach. Guess that makes us lucky, huh?"

"That's good news. When the gravity blast cannon is charged up, turn the bow of the ship towards the surface and shoot straight down at the Jovians. That should finish enough of them off that we can deal with the rest," Dan stated. Hana and Hitoshi acknowledged his commands.

Sosuke looked to the right. "If the situation were not so urgent, I bet re-entry through all of these nano-machines would be relatively peaceful." He met Hana's eyes and the two of them gazed deeply into each other's souls. Hitoshi sighed and tried to stay out of their line of sight.

"I can see these two are going to make things very uncomfortable for me," he said quietly. Dan looked down at them and chuckled.

Dan leaned over the top tier of the bridge and cupped his hand. "I think it's cute," he whispered to Hitoshi. Hitoshi sighed again, but couldn't withhold a smile.

"I heard that, but I have to agree with you," Hana said. She waved at Sosuke and turned back to the console in front of her. Sosuke smiled and also turned back to what he was doing.

"We're now in range of the enemy vessels. Should we blow them up with the gravity blast cannon now?" Hitoshi asked.

Dan looked forward out the window. "Miss Hana, please aim the bow of the ship towards the surface of Mars. Hitoshi, fire when the Jovian ships are in our range of fire."

The window in the front of the bridge showed the front of the ship turn down towards the surface. A cluster of purple Jovian battleships slowly came into view. The sound of the gravity blast cannon firing suddenly broke the silence. The black beam speeded towards the surface and crashed into it with tremendous force. An explosion ripped through the distortion fields of several Jovian vessels and a cloud of red dust followed soon after.

Dan looked around. "Well, that was as easy as apple pie. Status report please."

"I think we've destroyed about half of the vessels down there," Hitoshi informed him. "The rest of them are having problems because of the small dust storm we generated."

Kato walked to the front of the top tier. "Let's use that dust storm to our advantage. Fire all graviton cannons into the cloud of dust and hope for the best."

From the right and left sides of the ship, the graviton cannons began to hail fire into the red cloud. A few more explosions speckled the cloud of Martian dust. The explosions swept away the remaining dust and cleared the way for the Jovians' hail of fire.

"Raise the distortion fields immediately!" Dan shouted. Graviton beams were hitting the ship hard. The field slowly began to surround the ship, deflecting the beams at last. Unfortunately, the damage had been done.

"We're rapidly loosing power," Hitoshi called up. "One of our phase transition engines has been badly damaged and has shut itself off to prevent an explosion. We're slowly descending to the surface..._towards the Jovians_."

Dan looked down at the Jovian battleships firing up at their ship. "Well, we needed to land anyway. I guess I just hadn't planned on it being so soon."

Hitoshi opened a window. "We'll be on the ground in 60 seconds. At that time, the Jovians are going to plaster us with everything they have. We'll be ground into fine powder and used as an abrasive substance to clean their bathtubs." Hitoshi began to laugh at his unusual idea, and Sosuke raised an eyebrow and turned towards him.

"Yay, bathtubs!" Kadin called from above.

Kato turned to the captain. "Despite the unusual context it was placed in, he's definitely right. Maybe we should launch the Aestivalis."

Hitoshi looked up at the executive officer. "There are still ten Jovian battleships out there. We're going to get pasted before the Aestivalis can even take care of one of them. Our distortion field is at 35, and we're down one PT engine. It's looking more and more hopeless, and to top it all off, we don't have anything whatsoever that can pierce their distortion fields."

Dan looked to his left and then he realized what they needed to do. "I have a plan! Miss Hana, turn 30-degrees to port and accelerate forward as fast as possible with the remaining phase transition engine." She complied, and the view screen showed the landscape shift under them. The ship stopped turning and everyone saw what Dan had planned.

"You can't be serious!" Sosuke shouted. Everyone looked at Dan and found that the expression on his face was quite serious. Everyone turned towards the view screen and watched as the ship began to accelerate forwards.

"We're being pursued by the ten remaining battleships. Our distortion field is beginning to become unstable," Hitoshi called out over the noise of graviton wave blasts bouncing off of their ship.

"It's only ten kilometers away," Dan replied. "And then, one way or another, we will be done with this simulation."

The entire crew watched as the most important part of the captain's plan drew ever closer: the open Chulip nearly ten kilometers ahead of the simulated Samayahita.

Kadin Ara turned to the captain very seriously and said, "We're really going to try to boson jump?" Everyone looked at him slightly confused. Dan just continued to stare at the Chulip. "Whoa and stuff," Kadin replied loudly.

In the other room, Victor was laughing. "They should know that they aren't allowed to go through the Chulip. That wouldn't be fair, since humans can't boson jump anyway!" He laughed again, watching as the distortion fields on the ship were failing quickly. "This would be a whole hell of a lot more funny if I didn't know what I know about the future plans for this battleship." He began to type furiously on the console in front of him.

Meanwhile, back on the simulated battlefield, the Samayahita was nearing its destination. "There's a huge problem," Hitoshi said suddenly. "A battleship is coming through the Chulip. We aren't going to make it in time." Dan just kept staring straight ahead.

"How is the gravity blast cannon doing?" Dan asked.

Hitoshi opened a window. "I think it'll be charged up about thirty seconds after the Jovian battleship comes through the Chulip." Dan looked over at Hana.

"Hana," he said, "on my mark, make a hard left, as hard as you possibly can." She nodded her head without turning around.

"Here it comes!"

The Chulip's mouth expanded and a shadowy figure was beginning to form in the opening. Soon, the shadowy form took on the shape of a Jovian battleship. Seconds later, the battleship was all the way through and charging up its gravity blast cannon.

"Get ready Hana," Dan called out. She began to enter data into her console. The Jovian battleship that had just emerged from the Chulip was almost fully charged up. Dan waited a few seconds, and then said, "Do it now, Hana!" The ship's view screen showed the ship do a 180-degree turn from the opening of the Chulip. The gravity blast shot from the Jovian battleship that had just emerged from the Chulip missed them by only a few feet, and went on to destroy three out of the ten pursuing Jovian vessels that had been chasing the Samayahita.

"Gravity blast cannon?" Dan asked, looking at Hitoshi.

"Give me fifteen more seconds!" Hitoshi replied.

Dan looked forward. "All Aestivalis launch now! Your job is to keep the battleships from firing at us, and to take down as many as you can."

The four remaining Aestivalis launched from the hangar and flew past the ship. Shin's Aestivalis took the lead. It landed and then jumped into the air. He boosted forward and cut through the distortion field of one of the Jovian battleships. The ship's hull cracked, and the entire port side of the vessel exploded. The other three Aestivalis pilots destroyed yet another battleship.

"You never had any intention of going through that Chulip, did you?" Sosuke asked, looking up at the captain. He turned towards him.

"Of course not," he replied. "I was just counting on the fact that Victor wouldn't let us get through it. I know it's not fair to take advantage of the human strategy behind the simulation, but we were told to win, and I'm not about to let us do otherwise." Sosuke shrugged and smiled. Dan turned to Hitoshi. "Can we fire a gravity blast shot now?"

Hitoshi turned around. "We can fire one shot, but that'll be the last one we'll be firing today. Since the PT engines are so much less efficient in an atmosphere, and since we only have one left, we aren't going to be able to charge the gravity blast cannon again. It's really a miracle we had enough energy for this one shot. As it is, it's only going to be 73 effective."

Dan shrugged and pointed at the enemy vessels. "Fire at will, Hitoshi!" he shouted. The console beneath Hitoshi's hands lit up as he activated the gravity blast cannon. Just a short while later, the black beam fired from beneath the ship and hit the Jovian battleship formation dead center. The lead ship exploded, and a few of the nearby ships took minor damage from the shock wave.

"And that's the end of that," Hitoshi said casually. "The only thing keeping us from being destroyed are the distortion field, which is at 30 and very unstable, and the four Aestivalis out there."

Dan looked at the Aestivalis, who were currently cutting across the axis of another Jovian distortion field. "We'll just have to put our faith in them I suppose." The battleship that the Aestivalis were cutting into exploded, leaving only six enemies left.

A communications window appeared with Saito Hajime's face on it. "We're in deep trouble if they begin to launch grasshoppers. I hope you have some kind of backup plan."

Dan looked around. "Well, there was one thing I was thinking of." He turned to Hana. "Miss Hana, please ram the nearest Jovian vessel." The collective sound of "WHAT!?" filled the bridge. "Oh, don't worry about it," Dan said calmly. "Our distortion field will take the brunt of the collision. Since our vessel is more powerful than theirs are, we should be just fine."

Hitoshi raised an objection. "Captain Shroads, our distortion fields are about to bite the dust. If we slam them into another distortion field, it'll probably collapse and we'll be shot down and killed, so to speak."

"Our fields will be just fine," Dan replied. "You'll soon see what I mean. Miss Hana, please ram the nearest Jovian vessel," he repeated. Hana just shrugged and turned the ship to face the Jovian that had come out of the Chulip. The ship slowly began to pick up speed and move towards the enemy. To the right, another Jovian battleship exploded due to the Aestivalis wing's efforts.

"I'm routing as much power as I can into the distortion fields," Hitoshi called to the captain. "They're still at about 30, but they're much more stable now that the Jovians aren't constantly pummeling us with graviton beams."

Dan looked down at Hitoshi. "Can you open only one of the foils for the Gravity Blast Cannon II?" he asked. Hitoshi raised an eyebrow, but affirmed that he could. The foil on the left side of the Samayahita opened and pointed straight at the enemy vessel. After a few seconds, the two distortion fields of the two vessels collided. The distortion fields both collapsed instantly and the Samayahita continued to fly straight towards the enemy.

"Damn it, our field collapsed," Hitoshi cursed. Six windows were orbiting his head as he tried to assess the situation.

"Don't worry about it. That's what I wanted to have happen," Dan soothed. Hitoshi turned and gave him a questioning look, but then turned back to his windows. The front of the ship was about to strike when it stopped short. Or at least it appeared short. In reality, the left foil for the Gravity Blast Cannon II had been driven deeply into the side of the Jovian vessel like a shish kebob. "Jettison left foil," Dan commanded. Small explosive charges went off beneath the foil's mount to the hull, and the foil detached from the underside of the Samayahita. The two ships drifted apart, and the Jovian vessel dropped to the ground and exploded. Dan looked at the four remaining vessels. "I wish we could do that again, but now we're without a distortion field. We wouldn't survive long enough to get as close as we would have to in order to impale them."

Sosuke turned to look at Dan. "The Aestivalis pilots want us to pull back. They've obviously noticed that we just lost our distortion field, and they don't want us to be destroyed."

"They're probably right. Miss Hana, can you pull us back from the...wait a minute." Dan stopped. He looked directly at the open Chulip still sitting on the ground. "We need to close that Chulip, and what better way to do so than to impale it with a Gravity Blast Cannon II foil." Dan smiled and looked at Hana, who was already typing away on her console. The ship turned towards the Chulip and began to accelerate. Hitoshi opened the foil on the right hand side of the ship and prepared to jettison it once it was embedded in the Chulip. The plan worked flawlessly, and the Chulip caved in on itself as the Samayahita released its second foil and backed away from it.

"I can't detect any Jovian activity within sensor range besides the ones attacking us right now. Presently there are four...make that three vessels." Hitoshi pointed to the remaining four vessels, one of which was in the process of exploding.

"They certainly don't waste time out there in those Aestivalis," the admiral said quietly. Dan agreed with him by nodding his head.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm out of ideas," Dan said quickly. "I welcome any suggestions."

The XO stood up. "Why don't we shut down our engines and land? We aren't going to do any good floating here with one phase transition engine and no weapons. Besides, if we were on the ground we would be a little less vulnerable. Hana, could you set us down somewhere nearby?" Hana nodded and began to enter the data. The ship turned and faced the three battleships, which were now concentrating solely on the Aestivalis swarming around them. The ship was moving backwards along the surface and then slowly set down near the remains of the Chulip. The sound of the phase transition engines shutting down filled the bridge. The remains of the Chulip provided some protection from the imminent threat the Jovians posed. One more battleship exploded as the Aestivalis continued to carve into their distortion fields.

A communications window with Shin's face appeared. "This is great!" he shouted. "We're so small that they can't even lock on to us! They're wasting their energy trying to shoot at us while we continue to cut into their distortion fields. Either they're really stupid, or else Victor is controlling them."

In the other room, Victor slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. "That idiot! I'll fix his wagon!" He began to type rapidly on his console.

Without warning, every graviton beam on the two remaining Jovian vessels began to fire on Shin's Aestivalis. "What the hell? Victor must have heard me," he laughed as he skidded away along the ground. "Nicole, you're up!" Nicole's Aestivalis approached from behind and leaped into the air. She boosted laterally along the ship and ran her knife along the hull.

"How's that?" she asked rhetorically. The battleship exploded behind her and she landed safely on the red Martian soil.

"That was wonderful, but now you need to catch that last one," Shin replied as he dodged the final Jovian vessel's fire. The ground around him was exploding, but he was able to steer through the mess safely.

"Leave this one to me," Saito called out. His Aestivalis jumped high into the air and gouged the Jovian's distortion field. The hull of the ship ruptured, and the entire ship slammed nose first into the ground. The enemy had been defeated and the simulation was over. The Aestivalis returned to the location where the Samayahita had set down.

On the mock-up of the bridge, the view screen shut off, showing only the gray monitors that they really were. Everyone rose from their seat and looked anxiously at the door that Victor would come out of. The door slowly opened to reveal a very impressed Nergal employee.

"You did an excellent job out here!" he shouted. "This simulation was much harder than the scenario the Nadesico faced four months ago, and you managed to actually descend to the planet's surface, and you did it with only one casualty. Although I must admit it was kind of funny watching Neji getting run over by a Chulip. At any rate, you definitely passed this test, and the real Samayahita will be launching in exactly one week. I will see you then. Until that time, have a great week off!" Everyone watched as he walked out of the room again. The pilots then entered the room. Everyone was in high spirits except for Neji.

"Cheer up," Shin said. "You got to get run over by a Chulip. That's such a funny sentence that I'm glad you did what you did." Neji looked at him, tilted his head, and then left it at that.

Dan shook everyone's hand in turn. "As your captain, I am very proud of your work today. That was definitely not an easy task, but we managed to survive the whole ordeal."

"All except Neji," Shin added. Neji hit Shin in the back of the head, but that didn't phase him at all.

"So I guess we'll see each other again in one week?" Hitoshi said.

Everyone said their farewells and walked out into the lobby together. From there, they left the building and went on their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Victor was reporting the day's events to the Chairman of Nergal. The chairman laughed. "You see?" he said, "I told you they'd do it. They work better together than the crew of the Nadesico will ever be able to. Together, there's nothing they can't do."

Victor rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "But if you'll look at the readouts sir, they just barely survived. At the end, they didn't have a distortion field, and one of their PT engines was damaged, not to mention the loss of the Gravity Blast Cannon II."

The chairman laughed all the more. "That's the beauty of the whole thing. There isn't a force that size anywhere in the universe! That simulation was deliberately made difficult to see how well they would do once they go to Mars." Victor still didn't understand, but he didn't want to press his luck. "At any rate, on Tuesday the Samayahita launches. Its designation is SM-001 and will be operated independently from Nergal. That's the only thing you have to remember until I give you the word, you got that?" Victor nodded and turned to leave the chairman in peace.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. A Journey To Their New Destiny

"Well, we're finally ready to launch in our own battleship. It's about time, since I was really sick of pretending to fight instead of actually going out there and helping the human race survive. I didn't have fun in the Martian simulator. First, a wave of nostalgia hit me, and then a Chulip hit Neji. A bunch of Jovians hit the ship, and the ship hit the surface. In the end, we actually did rather well for a bunch of people playing a video game."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

A Destiny Star

Episode 4: The Journey to Their New Destiny

The short week was over at last. The crew of the Samayahita was assembled in a Nergal docking bay where they were waiting to board the brand new UEAF battleship. All 186 members of the crew were sitting in folding chairs in front of a stage with a single podium on it.

"What are we waiting for?" Hitoshi asked Sosuke quietly. "This is really boring, and I want to get on board the battleship and take off as fast as possible."

Sosuke turned his head towards him and whispered back, "I think the chairman of Nergal wants to make some half-assed speech about how we're such a great crew. I don't really give a damn one way or the other."

Victor, who was sitting in front of them, turned around. "That's no way to talk about one of the most powerful men in the solar system," he hissed.

"Oh don't get your knickers in a twist," Shin said. "It's not like he can hear us, and we're not under his jurisdiction. You may be his loyal lap dog, but we're members of the glorious United Earth Assault Force."

Victor shrugged and smirked. "What would you know about loyalty. You're an Anime fan."

Shin stood up, knocking his chair over. "What the hell does that mean? Just because I like cartoons doesn't mean I don't know how real life works!"

Victor laughed condescendingly. "Anime fans don't know the real world from the imaginary one. That's what the chairman told me."

Hana leaned forward. "You know, you can only hang on a man's word so much before it becomes unhealthy." Victor just frowned and turned around.

"Damn fool," Shin hissed as he sat back down in his chair.

"Here comes the chairman. Let's just listen to what he has to say," Dan whispered.

The chairman of Nergal walked to center stage and stood behind the podium. "Good morning everyone," he began. "My name is Nagare Akatsuki and I am the chairman of Nergal Heavy Industries. I just wanted to let everyone here know that I am pleased with your training and expect at least that much from you on the battlefield. Many of you may think that I'm bitter that I've been forced to cooperate with the UEAF from now on, but it's important for you to realize that I began working with them again in order to benefit the entire human race. In retrospect, it was a bad idea to work against them in the first place, but now bygones are bygones, and the Samayahita is physical proof of that."

Hitoshi was fidgeting around, trying not to fall asleep. In his opinion, 8:30 a.m. was far too early to be awake. "How much longer is he going to drone on?" Hitoshi whispered.

"Twelve years!" Kadin shouted. Everyone in the room looked at him, and Chairman Akatsuki's eye twitched, but he said nothing. He just continued his speech.

"Even fully awake, this speech is pretty boring," Sosuke sighed. He placed his hand in Hana's, and the two of them leaned on each other.

At last, Akatsuki's speech ended and the chairman of Nergal walked off the stage. Most of the audience applauded him, but no one could tell if they were applauding Akatsuki or the fact that his speech was over. Victor walked up the steps to the stage and took the chairman's place behind the podium.

"We will now be boarding the battleship and taking off," he announced. Another round of applause filled the hangar. Victor absorbed the attention like a sponge. "You may all enter the ship at this time. Liftoff will be in twenty minutes."

With that, everyone rose from their seats and began walking towards the crew access elevators. The bridge crew was the first to enter the battleship's corridors and they all made their way towards the bridge rapidly. It wasn't long before everyone had entered the brand new bridge of the brand new battleship.

"It's so much nicer in there than it was in that simulation room," Admiral Minamako said.

"It certainly is pleasant seeing real surroundings outside instead of a bunch of monitors feeding in a computer simulation," Kato agreed. He ran his hand along the side of the window, which occupied the front half of the room's walls. "It's thicker than the windows of any battleship I've seen so far."

Hitoshi walked down to his station in the second tier. He looked at the new controls and new nano-board. "I just love the smell of brand new electronics," he said, sitting in his chair. He ran his hand across the nano-board, wondering what it would be like to finally control a real SVC model computer.

Dan walked up to his console. "Are we ready to go, or are we all content to sit here and gape at our new toy?" he laughed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the master key for the battleship. He slowly and dramatically slid it into the lock and turned it. The lock dropped into the console and the chamber closed. "And now it begins."

Everyone finished looking around and slowly filed into their positions. Hitoshi began the startup sequence for the ship. A few windows opened in front of him, one of which had what looked like a hand-drawn five-sided star with the word "Unmei" written in Japanese Hiragana in the center. "Unmeihoshi?" he asked in surprise.

"What's Unmeihoshi?" Sosuke asked.

Hitoshi turned to face him. "The SVC computer calls itself as Unmeihoshi apparently. I didn't know computers were in the business of naming themselves." He shrugged and turned back to the nano-board.

Hana turned to look at him. "Isn't that Japanese for "Destiny Star?"" she asked.

Hitoshi glanced to his right. "Something like that. That's an unusual name, but it does have a nice ring to it. This SVC series computer is a lot more powerful than even the computer that had been stuck in the simulation room. That one didn't even have a name for itself." He continued to play around with the windows as he started up the battleship. He seemed to be having a great time with the computer. He looked up at Dan, who was already looking at him. "The phase transition engines and nuclear pulse engines are now coming online. We should be able to lift off at any time now."

Dan turned and faced the window at the front of the bridge. "As soon as the hangar is clear, we're getting out of here. He leaned over the top tier and whispered to Hitoshi, "I think I've had about as much of Nergal Heavy Industries as I can take in one lifetime." He glanced at Victor, who wasn't paying any attention to him. He then stood back up and a few status windows opened around him.

"All 186 members of the crew have confirmed they are aboard, sir," Hitoshi reported. "I think we're all ready."

Dan smiled. "Then I suppose we should be off. Miss Hana, gently lift us out of the hangar. From there, set a course for the UEAF regional headquarters in Beijing. We will receive our orders once we arrive."

Everyone watched as the battleship slowly lifted from the hangar. Everyone on the bridge smiled as the wall they had been facing slowly dropped as the ship rose. "Here we go on our little adventure," Hana murmured.

The battleship rose above the roof of the hangar and for the first time was completely exposed to the daylight. The light bounced off of the bow of the ship directly into the window of the bridge, bathing everyone in warm sunlight. After the ship completed it ascent, it turned towards the west and began to accelerate.

"Can you get me the latest reports of recent Jovian activity from our satellites?" Dan asked.

Hitoshi opened a window. "As of 5:00 a.m., there are no Jovians between our current position and Beijing. It should be clear sailing for at least an hour."

"Everyone may take a break now," Dan announced. "The ship is running on auto pilot and it is not necessary for everyone to be here now. Just keep your communicators on in case of an emergency."

The bridge crew rose one by one and began to walk off the bridge. The only ones remaining were Hitoshi and Dan. "Captain, you can go too," Hitoshi said. "I've got everything here under control."

Dan looked at him. "I'd rather stay and observe, unless of course you want me to leave."

"No, that's not what I meant," Hitoshi replied. "I had just assumed that you would like to go and have a nice break. If you want to stay and observe, that's just fine. I guess that since this is the first time you've been in full command of a battleship, you want to enjoy it." He smiled. "You're the most compassionate captain I know."

Dan looked forward out of the window at the front of the bridge and sighed. "I can't believe that I'm the captain of this entire battleship." He smiled. "When I was an XO, I really didn't have any other function other than giving out free advice. Now I'm the one that's in command, I'm not sure I'll do such a good job."

"It's that very reason that I know you'll do fine," Hitoshi replied. "Besides, you did fine in the simulations."

"Simulations aren't the same as a true to life experience," he replied. "In this scenario, we could actually meet our end, and that's what worries me."

Hitoshi reached beneath his seat and pulled out a video game controller. "I'm glad to hear that you're worried about our well being. I've met a few people who couldn't give a damn about whether we live or die." He fake-coughed and inserted Victor's name in the middle. Dan nodded in agreement. He unwound the cord on the controller and unraveled a knot in it. "You don't mind if I occupy myself with a video game, do you?"

"That's not a problem," Dan replied. "I'm going to read a book, so enjoy yourself." Dan pulled out a book and flipped a few pages until he was sure that he had found the place he had left off. Hitoshi plugged the controller into a plug beneath the nano-board and a window opened with the game displayed within.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew headed towards the cafeteria. The admiral led the way, with Kato and Kadin right behind him. Sosuke and Hana were taking their time and walking hand in hand. Victor was bringing up the rear and walking slowly. It wasn't long before they arrived at the cafeteria, which was four decks below the bridge.

"What will everyone have?" The admiral asked. He was the first in line, and offered to order for everyone. The crew quickly rattled off their orders and the assistant chef ran back into the kitchen. Victor didn't order anything to eat and just followed the rest of the bridge crew around needlessly, interjecting annoying comments along the way.

The group walked to a large table in the center of the cafeteria. Shin, Neji, and Jonathan were already sitting there eating their meal, and the bridge crew joined them.

"Good morning everyone," the admiral said as he sat down. The Aesti pilots returned his greeting and also said hello to the rest of the crew.

"How long until we reach Beijing?" Neji asked.

"It shouldn't be any longer than three hours, as long as Jovian activity is minimal," Kato replied. He dug into his chicken and didn't elaborate.

"If we were in space, we'd be able to cross a distance that small very quickly," Hana sighed, "But since the phase transition engines aren't as effective on Earth, it takes much longer."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Sosuke replied. "Earth is Earth and space is space. Maybe once we receive our orders, we'll be sent up there, but for now we'll just have to deal with it."

"All I know is that I want to go to the Moon," Shin said. "That's where the action is, and that's where I want to be!"

"But the more action we see, the greater the chance that we'll get shot down," Jonathan mumbled.

"You're just scared because in the simulations you were the pilot that was shot down the most," Shin replied. "I'm ready to fight off those alien scum."

"It's not as easy in real life," Neji interjected. "In actual combat, Chulips release thousands of grasshoppers at once. Since they can teleport from wherever the hell they live, they have a huge advantage over us."

Kadin jumped up and shouted, "Yay! Boson jump!" The entire cafeteria looked at him, but he didn't care.

"Anyway," Victor added, "because the Jovians can boson jump, we can't stop them from reaching the Earth since they bypass all of our defenses by using grounded Chulips. And since they use unmanned weapons, they aren't losing any soldiers. This means that an invasion of Jupiter at some point will be costly and dangerous."

"Will we even ever make it to Jupiter?" Sosuke asked. "It's so far away from Earth, and it would probably take about half a year to get there, not to mention the size of the force that must be guarding it."

"We'll get there eventually," Victor said confidently. "The Jovians can't possibly win this war."

Shin muttered under his breath, "They're doing a damn good job so far."

Victor turned to him. "You don't need to worry about it because you're just a pilot. You just do what we tell you to do and nothing more."

Shin became angry. "And if it wasn't for the lowly pilots, you wouldn't last ten minutes out there. I think the only way this war is going to end is if the Jovians get tired of trying to invade our planet and decide to head home."

Victor stood up and walked over to him. He bent down and picked him up by the collar. "Listen here you jackass! The Jovians are never going to give up, and it will be our job to exterminate every last one of them! Their women and children will not be safe, and we will make sure their seed is erased from the universe!"

Shin had had enough. He punched Victor in the stomach, which abruptly caused him to drop him. He then punched him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards into another table. Victor climbed to his feet and charged at him. Shin was ready for him, but never ended up getting the chance to fight the Nergal employee. Kato had run up and punched Victor forcefully in the face, sending him down again.

"Listen here, Victor," Kato shouted, "and you too Shin. You two are acting ridiculous! Victor, you need to have a hell of a lot more respect for the pilots, especially Shin. If we didn't have our Aestivalis pilots or the Aestivalis, we wouldn't be able to do a damn thing in this war. If anyone is the jackass, it's you. You're overconfident, and you're obsessed with that Akatsuki jerk. I know that you're just his pawn, but you could at least try to make it a little less obvious. And you're a damn fool if you think we're all powerful. There is no such thing as an invincible battleship. Nergal believed the Nadesico was invincible, but now it's been gone for four months, and it's probably not coming back. I'm just glad that Nergal doesn't have us under their thumb or else we'd probably end up the same way." Victor slowly rose. His eyes were full of rage, and he rubbed his right cheek where he had been punched twice. Despite everything, he smirked at Kato and Shin.

"You just made a huge mistake," Victor said. "There aren't many people who mess with me, and those who do don't usually enjoy the ramifications. For starters, I'm going to report you to the captain. After that...well who knows?" He walked towards the door that led to the elevators. He disappeared through them with everyone's eyes on him.

"Good riddance," Shin sighed as he slumped into his chair.

Kato turned to him. "You're going to have to be a little more careful with him," he reprimanded. "He's obviously got something against you, and you're pretty overconfident about your abilities as well. You're going to need to watch out or you're going to get burned."

Shin waved his hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, I know all that. You can only tempt fate so many times and all that nonsense. Victor is more likely going to get burned first, and I just pray to God that I'm there to see it." He resumed eating and pretended like nothing ever happened.

"In all fairness, Victor did start the fight," Hana said as she played with her food.

"But Shin did goad him on. If he had just kept his mouth shut, that probably wouldn't have happened," Kato replied. There was a long silence.

"Hey guys," Neji wondered out loud, "how does Victor know that the Jovians have women and children?" Everyone sighed loudly and stared at him. "What? For all we know they could reproduce asexually, or even have more than two genders."

"Ever hear of something called a figure of speech?" Sosuke asked rhetorically. Neji shrugged and continued eating.

Five minutes later, the captain's face appeared on a window in front of the entire table. "I would appreciate it if you could all come to the bridge for a few minutes," he said calmly.

"We'll be right there, sir," Kato replied. He gave a sharp glance to Shin, who had his mouth open and was about to say something. After seeing Kato, though, he wisely closed it.

"I don't want to hurry along your meal, but it is somewhat urgent," Dan replied.

"It's no problem at all," Hana called out. "We were just finishing up anyway." Dan nodded his head and the communications window closed.

"This should be fun," Sosuke sighed sarcastically. "I'm not particularly interested in hearing what Victor told the captain because I know it was probably riddled with lies."

Kato smiled. "I wouldn't worry. The captain doesn't like Victor either. I think everyone on this ship is aware that Nergal is bad news for the UEAF. If he really wanted to chew us out, he would have demanded our presence right this instant."

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Hitoshi was eyeing Victor warily. Victor was walking back and forth across the front of the bridge with an ice pack to his cheek. Hitoshi was slightly angry with Victor because he had admonished him for playing his video game. Victor was about to rip the controller out of the socket when the captain intervened and stopped him. He then went on to tell some bizarre story about how he was giving the bridge crew a pep talk, and Shin became annoyed with him and punched him. He went on to say that when he had tried to fight back against Shin's onslaught, Kato punched Victor for starting a fight. Hitoshi had never heard such a load of bull in his life. Nevertheless, the two bruises on Victor's right cheek didn't make themselves, so Dan had to call the rest of the crew to find out exactly what happened in the cafeteria.

"They must be taking their dear sweet time," Victor growled. "They were brave when they were in control of the situation, but now they're scared of what the captain will do to them."

"They're taking their time because they weren't finished eating," Hitoshi called to him. "As a matter of fact, they had barely begun when you had your lights punched out and came crying to the captain."

"Shut the hell up you jo..." He stopped short of what he was going to say.

"What were you going to say?" Hitoshi asked angrily.

"Nothing," Victor replied quickly. "Don't you have some buttons to push or something like that? Why don't you play your stupid game some more?" He shrugged and turned back to his game.

"I wish you'd settle down," Dan sighed. "I told them they could come whenever they were ready. If you're that anxious to cause them trouble, then maybe I could expedite the process by pulling up the security camera data from the cafeteria."

"There's no need for that," Victor replied. He knew that if the recording were pulled up, his case would go out the window since he had grabbed Shin first.

"Then please sit down and shut up!" Dan shouted. Hitoshi smiled satisfactorily. He enjoyed seeing the Nergal employee in uncomfortable situations.

At that instant, the bridge crew and the three Aestivalis pilots who were there at the time entered the room. They all had neutral expressions on their face and did not make eye contact with Victor.

"What's the meaning of this disturbance?" Dan asked calmly.

The admiral spoke up. "Victor was fervently proclaiming the destruction of the Jovians and Shin had been mocking him. Victor approached threateningly and grabbed him. Shin punched him out of self-defense. Victor made a run for him to retaliate, and Kato intervened and punched Victor in order to stop him."

Dan turned to Victor. "Does that sound about right?"

He folded his arms and looked at Shin. "All except the part about Shin responding in self-defense. When I mentioned destroying the Jovians, he became angry. Maybe he's a Jovian spy."

Neji sighed. "I doubt an alien species with superior technology and the ability to boson jump would enlist the help of the species they were trying to conquer."

Hitoshi looked at Victor. "Besides, why would Admiral Minamako lie?" he said snidely. Victor wanted to leap over the console between himself and Hitoshi and tear out his trachea.

Dan looked at him. "Thank you, I was just about to make that point as well. If you were in my position, whom would you believe first: a high ranking admiral or an employee of a company that has double-crossed the UEAF at least once?" Victor slammed his fist against the window of the bridge.

"Of course you'd believe them. They all hate me," Victor growled.

"Do we need further proof?" Hitoshi said calmly. He opened a window and slid it up to Dan. The window began to play back a video clip. When the sound came on, Victor knew he couldn't win. Hitoshi had retrieved the data from the security cameras and given it to Dan to watch in a convenient window. Victor sighed in defeat and walked past everyone and out the door.

"Can't you fire him or something?" Kato asked the captain.

Dan turned to him and said, "I wish I could, but part of the deal we made with Nergal was that there would always be a Nergal liaison on the ship at all times."

"Can't we get a new guy, one that isn't such a jerk?" Sosuke asked.

"I'm half tempted to drop a message to Akatsuki himself and see if he can't get the idiot off the ship," Hitoshi replied without turning around his video game.

"Now really isn't the time to do anything," Dan informed them. "We're nearing Beijing now, and we'll be receiving our first set of orders." After hearing that, everyone filed into position on the bridge. "Could someone tell me exactly how long it will be until we're at the UEAF regional facility?" the captain asked.

"It shouldn't be any longer than ten minutes," Hitoshi replied. "Are you getting impatient?"

"No," Dan replied, "just angry. I can see that Nergal is going to be a thorn in our side throughout the entire war."

In about ten minutes, the ship arrived at the United Earth Forces regional headquarters. The large battleship slowly descended into the subterranean hangar and the gates closed above it. A small group of men on a small vehicle approached the ship and stopped near the entrance elevator.

"That must be the men with our mission briefing," Kato said as he watched the men disembark from their vehicle. The men walked towards the entrance of the ship and disappeared from the view of the bridge crew. In a few moments time, the three men that had entered the ship were on the bridge and were ready to give their mission briefing.

"Hello," one of them said, "My name is Matsutsu Deanu, and my colleagues and I will be giving you your mission briefing." He opened a briefcase and pulled out a small laptop computer. He placed his hand on the nano-board and the single IFS implant in his hand began to glow. "As you may well know, the United Earth Forces are preparing to mount an assault against the Jovian Lizards who have taken over our moon," Matsutsu stated. "This battleship, the Samayahita, will be part of that operation. It is very vital that we take the moon back from the Jovians, as many factories and settlements existed on the moon before the invasion. It is our sincere hope that this mission will liberate those people and resources that are so important to us."

The man stopped and looked down at the laptop. The IFS on his hand lit up temporarily. He removed his hand shortly afterwards, and a large comm window opened up in the front of the bridge. It displayed a model of the moon and the relative size of the Jovian fleet stationed around it. Matsutsu pulled out a laser pointer and shone it on the Sea of Tranquility.

"The Sea of Tranquility will be the focus of our initial attack," he continued. "The Jovian fleet is the strongest here, but if we can pierce through their line and hit them from behind, we will stand a great chance of completely destroying their lunar occupation fleet. The entire operation depends on the Samayahita and the ND-002 Cosmo, since both ships are more powerful than anything we have right now."

"And what if only the Samayahita and the Cosmos come out of this alive?" Kato asked.

"At least you're on the Samayahita, Mr. Fatomiyo," Matsutsu replied scornfully. Kato was surprised by the anger in the man's voice. Were the UEAF officers jealous of the beautiful phase transition core battleship?

"That's not really what I meant by that," Kato began. Matsutsu interrupted him.

"I know you didn't mean it like that, but that's how many of the soldiers that will be participating in this operation feel. That's why we're relying on you to keep the rest of the fleet safe."

"We will be placed in the orbiting fleet for now, right?" Dan asked.

Matsutsu replied, "No, until the operation is to commence, the Samayahita will remain on Earth. For the next month, you are to take part in the UEAF's Chulip mop-up operations. There are over two thousand Chulips on the Earth, but as long as the big barrier is up, no more can land. If we destroy all of the Chulips on Earth, then we can shift the focus of this battle into space, maybe even Mars and Jupiter."

"Why are we waiting a month to attack the moon?" Hitoshi asked.

"Now would not be the best time," he replied. "With the Cosmos and the Samayahita still so new, it would not be wise to rush them off into battle without first gauging what they are capable of. That way, we can make a more informed battle strategy."

Victor, who had slipped in an undetermined amount of time ago, walked forward. "The two ships are strong enough to do the job themselves, I'm sure," he said. "Nergal does not build pushover battleships, and all of the data that was released regarding them is correct in every sense of the word."

Matsutsu began placing his documents into his briefcase. "Regardless of what you may think, the Cosmos and Samayahita are not invincible. There is no point in sending them off to their destruction in such a manner as you have described." Victor scowled and turned away.

"Not your day, is it?" Hitoshi said in a satisfied manner. Victor had to fight the urge to dive over the partition and strangle the science officer. Instead, he shouted at him as loudly as he could.

"I can't wait until you're taken down a notch, and believe me, it's going to be damn soon!" With that, Victor stormed off the bridge.

"So for now, where are we going?" Dan asked.

"You will be part of the North American Chulip cleanup operations for the next month," Matsutsu replied. "You will leave immediately following our departure from the ship. Please make your preparations as me and my associates make our exit." The man bowed, picked up his briefcase, and walked out the door.

"Well, I suppose we should begin powering up the phase transition and nuclear pulse engines. After the hangar is clear, we're taking off," Kato announced. Hitoshi began the process of powering up the engines.

"You sure we can't shove Victor out an airlock?" Hitoshi asked jokingly. Dan smirked and said nothing.

After the hangar was clear, the SM-001 Samayahita lifted out of the hangar and headed off to the east in the direction of North America.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	5. The Beauty of the Newly Risen Star

"Previously, Victor Nakasone topped the list for most hated crew member. Everyone who knows anything about Martian Successor Nadesico knows that Nergal is not to be trusted, and the Nergal crewmember stationed on the Samayahita is a prime example. Maybe I'm being too judgmental, but shouldn't an employee working for the military have a little more restraint than he does?"

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

**A Destiny Star**

**Chapter 5:** **The Beauty of the Newly Risen Star**

"Another battleship is coming through the Chulip!" Hitoshi shouted over the commotion on the bridge. "That'll bring the total count of unmanned Jovian battleships up to seven."

"How long until the gravity blast cannon can fire again?" Kato asked as calmly as possible.

"Only 30 seconds," Hitoshi replied. "Can we try to get into a better position? The seven ships have formed a nice little shield that's going to block our gravity blast cannon."

"That'll be a piece of cake," Hana called out. She cracked her knuckles and began pressing buttons. The ship turned away from the Jovian battleship wall and began accelerating.

"The gravity blast cannon is all ready to fire," Hitoshi said. "Just face the ship at the Chulip and we're good to go."

The ship did begin to turn, but the Jovians were not very happy about it. They began to hit the Samayahita with everything they had. Fortunately, everything bounced off of the Samayahita's distortion field. The Chulip was at 12 o-clock center, and the UEAF ship fired its gravity blast cannon. The Chulip collapsed and exploded, leaving only the seven battleships to fight the Samayahita.

"Fire a few missiles, and keep the graviton wave cannons firing!" Kato commanded. "What's the status of our Aestivalis pilots?"

"Pilots Shin Hiradeki, Neji Kaminayo, Nicole Viray, Saito Hajime, and Eri Osato are occupied by the grasshoppers and cannot go after the battleships," Sosuke explained.

"Can we go any faster?" Victor asked impatiently. "We're supposed to be at the orbital rendezvous in an hour!"

Four weeks have passed since the Samayahita was assigned to North American Chulip cleanup duty. In that time, they managed to destroy exactly 18 Chulips with only moderate difficulty. It is now time to commence the Third Battle of the Moon, but the Samayahita cannot leave until it finishes off the remaining Jovians that had jumped through this Chulip.

"We're doing our best, and I'll ask you to please remain quiet," Dan said in reply to Victor's comment. "The fleet probably won't be fully assembled for another three hours anyway. At any rate, the United Earth Forces have waited over one month for this operation, I'm sure they can wait another hour or two for us." Dan turned back to the window at the front of the bridge, and Victor silently cursed him.

"One of the Jovian ship's distortion field is collapsing," Hitoshi announced. "I am focusing all graviton cannons on it for now in order to finish it off." The six cannons fired simultaneously and pummeled the Jovian battleship nearest to the center of the crew's point of view. The distortion field shimmered, then vanished altogether. Beams tore through the hull of the enemy ship, completely devastating the Jovian vessel. It exploded, and the shock wave forced the two nearest battleships off to the side.

Kato turned to the captain. "Maybe Victor is right for a change," he said discretely. "We could easily make it into space if we ran away now, and if the Jovians followed us, I guarantee they wouldn't make it any farther than the Third Defensive Line."

The captain contemplated this. He turned to the admiral and ran the idea past him. "Admiral, if we left now, what would we have to gain or lose?"

The admiral took out a small nano board and opened up a window in front of him. "Currently, 67 of the total number of ships have assembled. At the rate ships are arriving in orbit, I can estimate that it will be about 1 hour and 17 minutes before the fleet will begin the journey to the moon."

"We're going to recall the Aestivalis," Dan announced. "It's going to take us time to get through the barrier, and our ship is supposed to spearhead the operation. It's in our best interest to leave now."

"About the Aestivalis…" Sosuke began. Everyone simultaneously looked up at the battle scene. The yellow Aestivalis, piloted by Eri Osato, exploded in a brilliant flash. The assault pit flew out of the explosion safely, and the activation of a homing beacon confirmed that Eri had indeed survived.

"Oh, well damn," Kato said quickly. "Have someone retrieve the assault pit and get everyone back on board safely." Victor chuckled and began walking towards the doors. Kato's eyes followed him. "Mind telling me what's so funny?"

Victor stopped and turned to him. "I'm sorry, it's not really that funny," he said calmly. "It's just that a million-dollar piece of machinery was just destroyed out there and no one seems to care about it."

"We have more important things to worry about right now," Dan said without turning away from the battle scene in front of him.

"Just keep in mind that it's the taxpayers that are the ones who will have to replace your mecha, and they don't really care for that situation," Victor replied seriously.

"Captain," Hitoshi began, "if I can draw your attention away from less important things, I have our trajectory set. Just give the word and we'll be en route to the rendezvous." Victor shot him a dirty look but said nothing.

"Then the word is given, Hitoshi," Dan replied. "Set course for the orbital rendezvous!"

"Ma'am, if you please," Hitoshi said as he opened a window. "Here are the coordinates." The window slid over and stopped in front of Hana, who began to enter them into her console.

"You really don't have to be so formal with us," Hana said to him. "Technically, you outrank me, so calling me "ma'am" is unnecessary."

Hitoshi smiled. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess it's just my upbringing."

"Besides," Sosuke added, "we're all friends here. It's not like we're going to court martial you for not addressing us formally."

Jim nodded. _I can think of someone who would probably court martial me if I didn't address him in the proper way. Fortunately, he's a civilian and holds no rank whatsoever._

The battleship lurched upwards as the phase transition engines kicked on. "All of the Aestivalis have returned. Eri's assault pit has been retrieved by Shin and has been placed in the hangar safely," Sosuke reported.

"That's good news. I'll be in my quarters for now. Please inform me when we reach the rendezvous point," Dan requested. "Until then, Hitoshi has command of the bridge." He bowed slightly and walked out the door. Victor followed him out, babbling on about the loss of the Aestivalis.

"We are now currently entering the stratosphere," Hitoshi announced. "We are also now beyond the range of the Jovians' graviton cannons. Everyone may take their break now, but please be back in twenty minutes." Most of the bridge crew did leave, but Sosuke and Hana remained with Hitoshi. They looked at him expectantly. "Can I help you two?" he asked.

"Haven't you heard?" Hana asked

"Didn't they tell you?" Sosuke asked.

Hitoshi turned his head back and forth, looking at them each in turn. "What are you talking about?"

"He really doesn't know," Hana said, turning back to her console.

"I would have bet they would have told him first," Sosuke sighed, putting his arms behind his head and reclining into his seat.

"What is it?" Hitoshi asked loudly.

"They're getting someone to run the other shift for you," Hana blurted out. She immediately covered her mouth to prevent herself from saying anything else. Hitoshi recoiled slightly in his seat.

"They're getting someone to help me?" he asked calmly. Neither of them had the will to respond at this point. "They're getting someone to replace me?" he asked with equal calmness.

"They're just getting someone to run the early morning shift," Sosuke informed him. "Apparently they don't think it's healthy for you to be up all hours of the night. How do you do that, anyway?"

"That's not the point right now," Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes. "The point is that I don't want or need help. You don't want to know what I had to go through in order to have the ability to run this ship. I'm just fortunate that I was very young; I don't remember most of it. What I do remember, though, is that it was very painful, both physically and mentally. If they bring in someone else to assist me, it's almost as if none of that was worth going through. My talents have become meaningless."

"What the hell are you going on about?" Sosuke asked in a less than sympathetic tone. "It's not like they're going to replace you. They're just getting someone to do your job while you're off duty."

Hitoshi frowned and turned away from him. "But still, it's the principle of the matter."

"She'll be joining us when we rendezvous with the Cosmos," Hana informed them. "She's already waiting in a Zero-G Aestivalis they're sending over for us."

"Oh great, it's a _she_?" Hitoshi groaned. "If it wasn't bad enough, I have to work with a woman." Hana cleared her throat. "Oh, I didn't mean you, ma'am. I've already grown comfortable with you, but women make me very nervous. I don't really know how to act around them."

"You must have been a fun teenager," Hana teased.

"No, I was too busy being educated on the inner workings these new and high tech battleships," Hitoshi replied. Hana sighed and turned back to her console. "Forty minutes until orbital rendezvous," he said calmly. The brief glimpse into Hitoshi's psyche was over for now.

"You really don't have to call me "ma'am"" Hana reminded him. Hitoshi remained silent, which annoyed her. "Sosuke, let's get something to eat." The couple rose and walked away from their posts, leaving Hitoshi alone once again.

"_If it really is her…"_

Meanwhile, Dan was walking down the hall trying to ignore Victor. "Captain, if you would please look at these figures I've drawn up, you'll see why I'm so upset! We've used up nearly twice as many missiles as we were supposed to in the last three battles. We have lost one Aestivalis, which is a drop in the bucket compared to how much it's going to cost to refit the gravity blast cannon's safety mechanism after that particularly violent battle last week. And besides all of this, the new crewmember we are taking on at the rendezvous point is another person to draw from the salary pool, not to mention another mouth to feed. When you take all of this into account…"

The captain stopped in his tracks, causing Victor to crash into him. "As the captain, I am well aware of our current financial status, so if you would, please do shut up!" Dan began to walk again, leaving Victor slightly stunned. Once he hopped back into reality, though, he quickly bounded after Daniel once again.

"Captain, you really shouldn't be so calm about this! The Earth is losing this war, and only we can turn the tide now! If we go belly up because of money, how do you think that would look to the expectant citizens of Earth who are relying on us to save them?" Dan stopped again and turned to face Victor.

"Mister Nakasone, I am the captain and I gave you an order!" Victor stopped rambling and looked at the man in front of him. "Now, please leave me alone! I have a few things I wish to take care of before we reach orbit, and you are making it very difficult for me to do so." Dan turned and began walking, and Victor began following him again.

"I am not a member of the UEAF, I am an employee of Nergal Heavy Industries. Because of this, I am a civilian and am not bound by your orders. Now, if you would just give me a moment of your time…"

"My ship, my rules," Dan said through clenched teeth. This time Victor stopped and watched as the captain walked away towards the lifts.

"What a bothersome man," Victor sighed. "I hope he's not going to make it too difficult."

"Make what too difficult?"

Victor cried out and turned around. A comm window hovered inches from his nose, causing him to stumble back. "Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, what a pleasant surprise," Victor said sarcastically.

"Please come to the bridge. I have something I wish to discuss with you."

Victor laughed obnoxiously. "You can't make me do your bidding! You don't have any more jurisdiction over me than a schoolteacher! Now leave me alone, you pissant, I've got work to do!"

Hitoshi's eye twitched. "You listen to me you pompous ass!" Victor was taken aback by his remark. "You get up here right now or I will see to it personally that you never find another job again!" Victor was taken aback, but kept his air of composure about him.

"I might be up later, _if _I have the time," he replied arrogantly. He turned and was about to walk away from the window. Before he got very far, though, twenty more windows opened up in front of him showing Hitoshi's less than amused face glaring at him.

"NOW!" he shouted from all twenty windows. Victor rolled his eyes and turned back towards the bridge.

The Nergal ND-002 Cosmos was in orbit above the blue planet Earth. At present, it was the point of a massive wedge of ships that were lining up for the strike on the Sea of Tranquility. In the hangar of the Cosmos, a young woman was sitting inside the cockpit of an Aestivalis Zero-G frame waiting for the order for her to launch.

"Are the monitors working?" a technician asked as he poked his head into the cockpit. The woman in the pilot suit gave him the thumbs up and closed the visor on her helmet. The technician announced, "Okay, we're going to clear the hangar now! If you don't have a vacuum suit on, get your ass out of here!" Men began to scramble out of the hangar to avoid being expelled into the vacuum of space. Finally, the hangar was deserted, save the orange Aestivalis that was prepped for launch.

"Okay, you're all set," a voice said over a radio frequency. "If you choose to approach them before they're in the formation with us, make sure you keep an eye on your battery, and watch your altitude. You go too far, and you're going to go for an unscheduled trip to Earth."

"I know how to handle an Aestivalis," she replied. "I'm not as bad as you may think."

"Yes, I know you're more than just a science officer, but because being a pilot is not your main occupation, it's important that you're careful." The pilot just flipped off her radio and placed her hand on the IFS controller. The hangar door of the Cosmos opened slowly, and the Aestivalis was hurled into space on the catapult.

She said to herself, "The Samayahita: It's a legged ship about the same size as the Nadesico. It has two clear hangars in the front on either side. There are two small wings added for show that each contain two graviton cannons."

The radio kicked back on, startling her out of her concentration. "Don't you turn the radio off!" the voice on the other end scolded. "What are you, some kind of fool?" She reached down to switch it off again, but stopped short. "Anyway, the only thing you need to know is the fact that it's going to be coming from the general direction of North America. Since it's the only legged ship coming from that area, it shouldn't be hard to spot."

"The High Mobile Battleship Nadesico, complete with its compliment of 214 crew members, vanished into oblivion just over six months ago on Mars. Based on past boson jumping experiments, it's more than likely that the Nadesico and all of her crew were destroyed after entering the Chulip. If the Nadesico was not, in fact, destroyed, it may reappear somewhere intact, but with all of its crew dead on arrival."

Hitoshi finished talking into his digital recorder and turned it off. In his spare time, he had been researching the Nadesico and its crewmembers thoroughly. Before the Samayahita had lifted off, he had plenty of time to begin his study of the first Nadesico-class vessel, and now he's been using Unmeihoshi to hack into the Nergal mainframe and add to his collection of data. He closed the windows around him and sat quietly in wait for Victor.

"Okay, what do you want?" Victor called from the top tier of the bridge. Hitoshi hadn't even heard the door open, and he had hoped the Nergal employee had not seen him hacking into the corporation's mainframe.

"Who is coming to the Samayahita?" he asked while rising from his seat. Victor eyed him up as he climbed the stairs and joined him on the top tier.

"New girl," Victor replied indifferently. Hitoshi began to walk in circles around Victor.

"And this "new girl" who is going to run my opposite shift, what's her name?"

"Classified."

"And her ID number?"

"Classified."

"What about her date of birth?"

"Classified."

Hitoshi stopped walking while still behind Victor's back. "Good Lord, is there anything about her that isn't classified? We're going to meet her in less than a half an hour!"

Victor smiled. "I know. I just reeeeeeally like pissing you off." As Victor walked away, Hitoshi wondered if he could get away with punching him in the back of the head. He was about to let his rage get the better of him when something rocked the entire ship.

"What the hell was that?"

Kadin and the Aestivalis pilot Shin Hiradeki were in the observation room fencing when the blast knocked them both to the floor. "Well," Kadin explained, "if I know anything about destructive forces, I'd say that we were just hit with a gravity blast." Shin shrugged and ran out the door towards the hangars. "Of course, I could just be making that up in order to get rid of you and steal your lunch." Kadin sat down and began unpacking Shin's brownbag lunch, picking the things he wanted and leaving the rest.

"How bad is it?" Dan asked as he took his position directly above Hitoshi.

"Well, it's not grand, that's for sure," he replied. "It would have been a lot worse if we hadn't had our distortion field on automatic, but explosion caused the ship to rock violently. Reports of superficial damage are flooding in. Something is very wrong with our stabilizers, or this would never have happened."

Dan turned his head. "One crisis at a time, please. What is it that hit us?"

A large comm window opened in front of the bridge crew. "At first, Unmeihoshi registered it as a gravity blast, but now it seems we were wrong. We're being fired upon by the UEAF. It's not battleships, mind you, but it's the Fourth Defensive Line itself. Dozens of missiles are flying directly towards us."

"Are you serious?" Kato exclaimed. "What in God's name are those fools doing down there?"

Sosuke raised his hand slowly. "Captain, we're receiving a transmission from the United Nations…?" he said uncertainly.

"Well, please patch them through." Dan took off his hat and scratched the back of his head. A large window opened up in front of the bridge showing the face of an admiral.

"My name is Admiral Kouichiro Misumaru of the United Earth Attack Force. We want you to return to the Earth."

Dan spoke up. "Admiral, we have a mission we need to fulfil! If we aren't there, the Third Battle…"

"I'm well aware of your mission," Misumaru interrupted. "The cause for our actions are confidential, so we cannot elaborate on our reasons. Just know that it is of vital importance that you return immediately." Dan was silent. What could he possibly say to _the_ Admiral Misumaru?

"We're not going to do it." Everyone gasped and looked down at Hitoshi, the one who had made such a bold proclamation. Admiral Misumaru's jaw dropped.

"And why not?" he demanded.

"If we turn back now, the chances that the Third Battle of the Moon will end in success will drop by 20. Since the odds are already against us, it would be foolish to make it even worse." Admiral Misumaru knew this was true, but…

"We can't allow you to go any further. The Third and Second Defensive Lines will be focused on you, and the Big Barrier will not be lowered." The Admiral stopped speaking momentarily. "However, if you manage to break through these Defensive Lines, we will not prevent you from continuing your mission." The edges of his mouth curled into a light smile, and with that the window closed.

"Well, I'm glad he understands our position," Dan sighed, relieved. "Do not deviate from our present course. We're going to the orbital rendezvous. Sosuke, get our pilots to their mecha. The Delphiniums from the Third Line will be launching shortly, and we don't want to be caught with our pants down."

Admiral Minamako stepped forward and stood next to Dan. "Hitoshi." The science officer turned around and looked up at his superior. "To whom does the blue Earth belong?" Hitoshi nodded his head and turned back to his work. To everyone else, the exchange made no sense, but to the Admiral and Hitoshi, it was a very important part of their escape.

"Nine Delphiniums are launching from a station one hundred kilometers away at two o'clock," Sosuke announced.

Dan slammed his hand down on the console in front of him. "Launch Aestivalis and Delphinium units! Engage, but do not, I repeat, DO NOT kill anyone! Just hold them off for awhile until we get out of this awful situation."

"The Big Barrier is down," Hitoshi said nonchalantly.

A collective _WHAT? _echoed throughout the bridge. "This changes everything," Dan exclaimed. "Cancel orders to launch our mecha. We're just going to run like mad."

"What an undignified way of putting it…" Sosuke sighed as he relayed the new orders to the hangar.

Hana looked at Hitoshi. "You've been using Unmeihoshi to hack a lot of things lately," she whispered. "Are you okay with doing that?"

Hitoshi looked straight ahead. "Unmeihoshi is the one who has been giving me suggestions. I would have…" he turned around to make sure Victor wasn't within earshot "…I would have never thought of hacking the Nergal database for information on the Nadesico."

"Well," Sosuke said slyly, "if you're okay with all of this, why don't you find out why they wanted to shoot us down?"

"They think there's a spy on board." Sosuke and Hana recoiled when they heard this revelation.

"What makes them think that?" Hana asked quietly.

Hitoshi sighed. "That's all of the information I could find before I reached a point that Unmeihoshi could not bypass. The security program was too much and Unmeihoshi and I had to retreat." He took his left hand and rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe it won't be so bad to have someone work opposite me. I'm exhausted."

"Captain, we're nearly to the rendezvous point, and the UEAF forces are breaking off. Since we have not been perused further, I would assume they're going to let us get away with this," Sosuke announced.

Kato pointed directly ahead of the bridge. "That ship at the head of the fleet is the Cosmos. It looks like they're ready to go now."

Sosuke raised his hand. "I'm getting a transmission from an Aestivalis about two nautical miles away at two o'clock. The pilot is requesting boarding rights."

Victor, who once again seemed to appear out of nowhere, hopped up. "That will be our new science officer! I think I'll go down to greet her in person!" He strolled happily towards the door, whispering a prayer that perhaps someone on this ship would be loyal to Nergal for a change.

"Captain…?" Hitoshi said quietly, turning around. "May I…?"

Dan shook his head negatively. "We need you here right now. I can't see how I could…" He stopped as he saw the pleading eyes of Hana and the indifferent yet convincing eyes of Sosuke. "Be back in ten minutes." Hitoshi suppressed a smile and quickly climbed over Sosuke. Before anyone knew it, he was out the door and on his way to the hangar.

Victor was about 30 yards ahead of him in the corridor. He abruptly stopped and turned around when he heard Hitoshi running after him. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked loudly. "We're about to go into battle and you're leaving your post? You can bet I won't sit still for this! I'll have you court-martialed! Just you wait, your ass will be mine, Tsumiyagi!" Hitoshi ignored him and ran past the shouting Nergal employee. "Damn it," he cursed as he began chasing after the science officer.

"Welcome to the Samayahita," one of the mechanics in the hangar said as he helped the pilot of the Zero-G Aestivalis out of the cockpit. "I hope you enjoy your stay here. I'm sure someone will be down to meet you shortly, so…"

"Is it?" someone shouted from the entrance to the hangar.

"Lieutenant Tsumiyagi, what are you doing here?" the maintenance man asked. "Shouldn't you be…" He was cut off as the pilot of the Aestivalis shoved him out of the way and floated down towards Hitoshi.

"It is?" he asked hopefully. The pilot tore off the helmet from the pilot suit and threw it aside, revealing a beautiful young woman with long, dark brown hair and yellow eyes floating towards him.

"It's been a long time, Hitoshi-Chan" she said, floating into his open arms.

"Ten years and six weeks," he replied. "How have you been?" She let go of him and took her bag off of her shoulders.

"That will have to wait until another time. Right now we have a job to do, so we'll have to catch up with each other afterwards." She smiled and grabbed his arm, and the two of them floated from the hangar into the gravity zone. Just as they were about to get back into the main corridor, they ran right into Victor.

"Well, it is good to see you made it here safely. I hope this foolish one did not bother you too much." He narrowed his eyes at Hitoshi, but then noticed that the girl was holding on to his arm. He nervously cleared his throat and continued. "At any rate, your quarters will be next to those of Lieutenant Tsumiyagi, and I imagine he will show you where those are after the battle. For now," he looked directly at Hitoshi, "there are _more pressing matters to attend to!_" With that, he flounced away.

"Ignore him," Hitoshi said as they began their quick journey back to the bridge. "He works for Nergal, and he's a real jerk. No one on board likes him, and for the most part we only pretend we care what he says."

"I know the feeling," she replied. "The Cosmos was filled with Nergal employees. I didn't get along with any of them, and I am so glad I'm gone now." The pair arrived at the bridge of the battleship and the girl walked to the bottom level and stood before the entire bridge crew. "My name is Lieutenant Sasha Kirei, and I am going to be your new science officer opposite of Lieutenant Tsumiyagi. I hope we will get along well together, and I will try my hardest to be the best science officer I can be." She shifted her bag back onto her shoulders. "If you do not mind, I think I will stay on the bridge until the battle is over."

Dan smiled. "Of course not. Why don't you take a seat in the middle with Hitoshi and he'll show you what to do." Hitoshi fidgeted and let out an undetectable sigh. Sosuke stood up and let both science officers into the center section.

"This is just like old times," Sasha said as she sat down and got comfortable. Hitoshi caught Hana looking at him and smiling, and she quickly acted innocently and turned to the control panel.

"Captain," Hana said quickly, "The Cosmos is directly to our starboard side. As soon as they give the word, we are to begin advancing to the moon."

Sosuke smiled. "Speak of the devil." He raised his hand and gestured towards the front of the bridge. An instant later, a comm window with the words "VOICE ONLY" written across the front appeared for the entire crew to see.

"This is the ND-002 Cosmos. We are prepared to commence the attack. All ships please advance to the coordinates we are sending you right now." A comm window suddenly appeared in front of Hana, and she began to input the data. The window at the front of the bridge disappeared, and the crew suddenly felt the rumbling of the phase transition engines behind them. It would not be long until they reached their destination: the Sea of Tranquility and the Third Battle of the Moon.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Past, Present, Future

"Well it's all coming together now. We are off to the Third Battle of the Moon, and I am sure we're going to have to fight fiercely to survive. However, not all of the drama is happening outside the walls of the Samayahita. Not only is Victor acting up as usual, but we also have a new crewmember, one who I am not too comfortable with, and yet at the same time I seem to have a history with. You'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens next."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

**A Destiny Star**

**Chapter 6: Past, Present, Future**

Hitoshi turned and opened the door. "I've got to go now. I'll see you around."

"Wait! I wanted to talk to you," Sasha said quietly. "It's been so long, so I thought…"

"I'm sorry," Hitoshi said as he closed the door behind him. _"After all this time, I still can't…" _He quickly walked away, making sure that girl didn't follow him. _"How did all of this begin, anyway?"_

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"It's going to be six hours before the battle begins," Dan said "You might as well all get some rest or something. I thought we were going to need everyone, but apparently it's all taken care of. I am giving everyone free run of the ship for the next four hours." He looked down at Hitoshi and Sasha, the two sitting directly in front of him. "Why don't you show her around, Hitoshi? You could also take her to her quarters and help her unpack if you want."

_Sasha smiled. "I think we'll go ahead and take the grand tour right now." She grabbed his arm once again and Sosuke politely got up and allowed the two of them out. On the way past, he noticed Hitoshi's mildly unhappy expression. They quickly ran through the door and were gone._

"_Did you notice that?" Sosuke asked Hana. _

"_Notice what?"_

"_They walked in and left with her holding on to his arm," he pointed out. "Therefore, they must have known each other, unless one of them moves really fast."_

"_Maybe she's just friendly," Hana suggested._

"_But when she was talking to the captain, she was very solemn, and though she smiled, she did so out of courtesy. No, that's not necessarily true. Maybe the prospect of being with her old friend Tsumiyagi made her happy. Maybe they were more than friends at one time."_

_Hana leaned back and crossed her arms. "I think you're making more out of this than you should"_

_Sosuke sighed and stretched his legs. "Don't forget, Hana, that he ran off to get to the hangar when he heard the Aestivalis arrived. I think that also says something." _

_Hana stood up and walked over to Sosuke. "Maybe you're right, but we've got four hours to do whatever we want…" She tapped Sosuke on the shoulder and he slowly rose. They walked out the door hand in hand leaving only Kato and Dan on the bridge. Everyone else had left when dismissed. _

"_So, do you know what the big strategy is for this battle?" Kato asked quietly. _

_Dan gestured out the starboard window towards the Cosmos. "They've got a multi-barreled gravity blast cannon, so I assume they'll be on point. However, we are going to need to help them since they don't have as many Aestivalis as we do. For some reason, they did not yet receive all of their pilots, so our Aestivalis will cover them while they wipe out the larger battleships. Other than that, they haven't said anything to me at all yet." _

"_I see…" Kato said. "Well, let's just hope this goes as well as they think it will." _

_Dan sighed. "They don't think it's going to go well at all. They're guessing we're going take 60 losses throughout the fleet, and that's best case scenario. I don't even want to know what their worst case scenario is." _

_Meanwhile…_

_Sasha was clutching on to Hitoshi's arm as he led her down the corridor that led to the crew quarters. "Hitoshi-Chan, what have you been doing all of these years? Did they educate you on how to be a crewmember like they did with me?" _

_Hitoshi seemed distant continued looking straight ahead. "Yeah, that's it." _

_Sasha giggled. "Same old Hitoshi. Never could look me in the eye. You were always so shy around me. On the other hand, I was always shy around everyone except for you. Isn't that interesting? I guess that's why…"_

"_This is it," Hitoshi said, cutting her off. He pressed the button on the door and it opened, revealing a standard room with the same furniture that was in every other room. "You can unpack your bags now and change into something else. I'll go wait outside." _

_Sasha threw her bag on the floor and grabbed his arm again. "Help me unpack, please!" Hitoshi reluctantly walked over and helped her put her bag on the bed. The bag was not large, just big enough to hold the essentials and a few changes of clothes. "Could you put those shirts on hangars and stick them in the closet?" she asked. Hitoshi just nodded and slid the closet door open. He then pulled the shirts out and unfolded them, and he was about to begin his task when a letter fell out of the bundle and landed at his feet. His friend did not notice, so he picked it up and checked it out. _

"That's my old home address at the Nergal facility apartment complex," _Hitoshi thought to himself. He slipped the letter into his pocket and continued to put her clothes away. Once he finished, he said, "Do you mind if I run over to my room for a second? I've got to…yeah." He walked out the door quickly and she just stood there and stared at the open door. _

_Once Hitoshi arrived back to his room, he quickly locked the door and jumped onto his bed. "Now then, what could it be that she was going to send me? It couldn't hurt to have a little peak inside, seeing as how it isn't sealed." He slowly began to slip the flap of the envelope up and pull out the contents. _

"_So that's what you were doing!" _

_Hitoshi jumped up and landed on the floor quite painfully. In the doorway, Sasha stood with her right hand held in front of her. The nano-implants began to glow. "I have these too, you know, and that means it's a trivial matter to open a locked door." Hitoshi sighed and stood up, rubbing his backside. Her hand stretched out demandingly. "My letter, please." He slowly retrieved the letter from the floor and handed it to her. "There's a reason I never sent it." _

"_Then why do you keep it with you?" he asked, feeling somewhat ashamed of himself. _

"_I just want to, that's all," she replied. She slipped the letter into her back pocket and walked back out the door. Hitoshi quickly followed her. _

"_I'm sorry that I did that, I was just curious since it had my name and former address on it. Actually, no one besides those I had worked with should have been able to access that address, so the fact that you had it means…"_

"_Help me move the bed, please," she said, cutting him off. It was obvious she did not want to talk about it, so Hitoshi shut up once and for all and did not press any farther. _

"_If you don't mind, I think I will take a nap now," Sasha said wearily. She collapsed on the bed and shut her eyes. "Could you turn the light off on the way out?" Hitoshi nodded and flipped the switch before closing her door. _

_Meanwhile…_

_Kadin Ara, the scientist on board the Samayahita, was busy studying some of the work he had brought with him for the trip. He made sure to keep his door locked at all times to avoid interruptions, and to make sure no one "accidentally" read the entire briefcase full of papers. Presently, there was a knock at his door. _

"_Who is it?" he asked loudly. _

"_It's Victor." _

_He rolled his eyes. "Oh sh…Fine, I'll let you in you jackass." As he got up, he snickered at his currently baseless disgust and liberal use of expletives. The door slid open and Victor walked in quickly before shutting the door behind him and locking it. _

"_So, tell me about Mars," the Nergal employee said quietly but sternly. He was obviously serious about getting information from Kadin. _

"_I'm sorry, but I need clearance to talk about things like that. And you're certainly not the clear type." Victor couldn't decide whether to be confused or to punch him in the stomach. Regardless, he slapped down a folder full of papers in front of Kadin. _

"_Here is all the authorization I need. It's from the Chairman. See for yourself!" Kadin fumbled through the folder and pulled out a paper. "What are you doing?" Victor asked. The scientist held the paper up to the light. Sure enough, the Nergal logo watermark was present behind the signature of Nagare Akatsuki. _

_Kadin sighed. "Okay, fine. What do you want to know?" _

_Victor smiled and sat down. "At the pole, in the chamber that collapsed, you found something. Only three people in the solar system know what it was. Tell me." Kadin squirmed and shuffled some papers. _

"_Only if I can get together with your mama," Kadin replied. Victor growled and Kadin laughed. "I'm just kidding, just kidding. Once was enough for me." Victor stood up and slammed his fist on the table. 1_

"_Damn it, I've got to know! What the hell was in that room!"_

_Kadin laughed. "Chill out, man. I'm getting to that, just like your mom." Victor growled once again and sat down. "At any rate, that room is something of a mystery to us even today. We do not know why it was there, and it does not seem to be of any vital importance. I imagine you already know what was in there, right?"_

_Victor closed his eyes, as if remembering something long forgotten. "That's right, there were petrified potted plants and things that looked like paintings of landscapes. Don't tell me that was everything." _

_Kadin tapped his finger against his nose. "Ah, that's what everyone thinks. Only Dr. Inez Fressange, Nagare Akatsuki, and myself know what else was in there. If you are prepared to know, then tell me so right now. I've got to warn you, however, it will be a paradigm shift for you in more ways than one." _

"_Get to the point. I haven't got all day." _

"_Well, obviously _someone _had to build that city in Mars's polar ice cap, right?" Kadin asked rhetorically. "Well, we found out who did. However, no one is going to like this answer." _

_Victor was growing impatient. "Stop beating around the bush and tell me or God help me, I'll…"_

_Kadin slapped him, effectively shutting him up. "I'll tell you what. You seem like a man who likes to overcompensate. You come back to me after the battle starts and I'll give you the rundown. After all, during the battle there won't be anything for either of us to do. On the other hand, I'm bloody busy right now and you're just being a pain in the ass, so I'll ask you to get out before I rip out your jugular vein," he said cheerfully. He smiled and stood up. He then proceeded to pick Victor up by the collar and drag him to the door. Before Victor could protest, he had been thrown into the hallway and had the door locked on him. _

_Meanwhile…_

_Hitoshi was heading back up to the bridge. _"I'm so bored,"_ he thought to himself. _"Not only that, but I'm dying to know what's in that letter." _When he opened the door, he found the captain sitting in his chair, reading as usual. This time, he was reading what appeared to be a very old book. The cover had been weathered away, and the title was no longer legible. "Sir, what book is that?" _

_Dan looked up. "Oh, sorry Hitoshi I didn't hear you come in. This book is called _Immortal Beloved_, and it's somewhat interesting." He turned the page. "You know, you're welcome to any of the books I have in my room. I know you can read anything you want just by using the computer, but there's nothing like reading an actual book." _

_Hitoshi walked down the three steps to the second tier of the bridge and took his seat. "Thank you, Captain. I may take you up on that someday. For now, I've…" He drifted off in mid sentence and began thinking about that letter again. Dan did not mind, but he was curious. In the end, he decided to just return to his book and not ask about it at present. _

"Stupid woman," _Hitoshi thought to himself. _"I wish she had never come back into my life. It took me long enough to get her out of my mind, but now she is sharing the ship." _He opened a comm window displaying the observation deck. He was delighted to see it empty. "Captain, I am going out again. How long until the battle begins?"_

_Dan looked at the small window hovering to his left. "Looks like about four hours until the estimated start," he said, "but I would like everyone back on the bridge in two." Hitoshi began to walk up to the door. "Hitoshi," the captain said, "I hope you find an answer." _

"_An answer?" he asked. "To what?" _

_Dan raised his book up again. "To your problems." Hitoshi nodded and quickly walked out the door. _

_Meanwhile…_

"_This is it!" Shin Hiradeki said as he fired his Aestivalis's thrusters and flew into the air. Neji Kaminayo, one of the other Aestivalis pilots, took careful aim. Shin fired his machine gun at Neji's green Aestivalis, and by all appearances it seemed as though it would hit. Neji, however, was ready, and the treads on the Aestivalis drove him to safety, but just barely. As he was moving forward, he fired his right hand at Shin's airborne Aestivalis. The arm went right through the chest and the entire mecha exploded. _

_Shin flung open the door on the simulator. "Damn it directly to hell without passing Go and collecting $200!" he shouted loudly. The other pilots were staring at him. Neji climbed out slowly and smiled. He was not being conceited, he was just happy to beat the one who killed all five of the other pilots. _

"_Nice work, Neji," Saito said. _

"_You completely outdid that showoff," Nicole said._

"_That was awesome!" Eri commented._

"_Excellent work," Jon said quietly._

"_Cool!" was all Theo said. _

"_Thank you guys," Neji said modestly. Shin was just fuming. Just as they were about to prepare for another round, a comm window opened up with the captain's face. _

"_Excuse me for interrupting your practice, but I have a special mission for you," Dan said quickly. "I want you to track down Kato." _

"_What are we, his caretakers?" Shin snapped. "We've got better things to do."_

"_Yes, but this is important," he replied, ignoring the tone of Shin's reply. "I need to speak with him right away, but unfortunately he has turned off his communicator watch. Could you search for him?" _

_Shin was about to speak, but Nicole elbowed him in the side and cut him off. "We'd be happy to find him for you. Just leave everything to us." Dan nodded and the window closed. _

_Shin growled. "I don't want to have to find Fat. I've got more important things to do." _

_Jon tilted his head. "Fat?"_

"_Yeah. His last name is Fatomiyo, and he's pretty dang fat, so I call him Fat." Everyone rolled their eyes and sighed. _

"_Whatever, let's just go," Eri urged. The group of pilots quickly left the simulator and went out on their mission. _

_Meanwhile…_

_Hitoshi was lying down in the observation deck, just being charmed by aqua space. He had been hoping to avoid all human contact, so he locked the door and turned off his communicator watch. _"Why is it that she came back to me? A long time ago, I wondered if things would turn out this way, but I never believed they would," _he thought to himself. "However," he said out loud, "just because she's here, that doesn't mean anything. Who knows how she feels about me? Maybe God's trying to tell me something, if there's even a God." The door slid open and he turned around. "Well, I was wondering when you were going to show up." Sasha stood in the door just looking at him. _

"_I think we need to have a conversation," she said quietly. _

"_You're right," he replied. "However, what is there to be said?" She sat down on the artificial grass next to him._

"_Ever since we were born, we were good friends," she began. "However, while you were open with everyone except for me, I was only able to talk to you." While she was speaking, she was pulling on the grass beneath her. "You were the only one I was able to open up to until I was forced to associate with other people after you had left. But you, you were never able to talk to me. Is it because you didn't like me? Or is it because you're shy?"_

"_The truth…" Hitoshi just said quietly. "There is no single truth." _

"_And what does that mean?" she asked angrily. "I came here to talk about our friendship. After all, we haven't seen each other in so long."_

Hitoshi turned and opened the door. "I've got to go now. I'll see you around."

"Wait! I wanted to talk to you," Sasha said quietly. "It's been so long, so I thought…"

"I'm sorry," Hitoshi said as he closed the door behind him. _"After all this time, I still can't…" _He quickly walked away, making sure that girl didn't follow him.

Meanwhile…

Kato walked onto the bridge and found Dan expecting him. "The pilots told me you wanted to see me," he explained, "so I hurried up here. What is it?"

Dan reached over and touched the control panel. The sound of the door locking shut behind Kato echoed throughout the bridge. "Unfortunately, it's worse than either of us could have imagined." The window closed and a new one opened in its place. "This is a fragment of information that Lieutenant Tsumiyagi retrieved from the UEAF database when we were breaking through the Big Barrier. If you recall, he commented that they thought there was a spy on board, and that's why they wouldn't let us leave."

Kato nodded. "That's right, I do recall that." He paused for a second. "Wait a minute, you're not saying that…"

"Yes, I am," Dan said gravely. "Someone has been stealing data from Unmeihoshi. I do not know where they've been sending it, and we would probably need Hitoshi to do the actual trace, but nevertheless, it is a serious problem, and it gets worse."

"What could be worse than that?"

"Remember when it was brought to our attention that something was wrong with our stabilizers?" Kato nodded slowly. "It was sabotage. I downloaded the security footage and it seems someone was in there. Unfortunately there is not a clear view of their face, but it is apparent that it was definitely deliberate."

"Okay, well, we need to alert the security staff, but we don't want to let the bastard find out," Kato said. "We need to stop him before he strikes again."

"There's only one hour until we all need to get back here on the bridge," Dan informed him. "In the meantime, could you see what you can dig up? You are the executive officer, after all." Kato nodded and motioned towards the door. Dan apologized and unlocked it from his console, allowing him to leave.

Meanwhile…

"_It's time to stop running from my past," _Hitoshi thought to himself. He jogged down the corridor towards the crew quarters, ready for anything. Just as he arrived, he saw her waiting in the hallway. "How did you know I was coming?" he asked.

"I didn't," she replied, "I just guessed." They both started running towards each other.

As the door closed behind Kato, a window with the words VOICE ONLY written across the front popped up in front of Dan. "What's this?" he asked no one in particular. The bridge was empty and he was not expecting a window to randomly appear in front of him.

"This is the Cosmos. The battle has come----us! --e Jovians a-----unching a surprise a---ck!" The message began to break up at the end, but it was obvious to Dan what it meant. He slammed his fist down on the control panel just in the nick of time. The distortion field rose and a volley of gravity blasts bounced off of it."

The pair ran down the hall and were about to meet each other when the entire ship rocked and instead they collapsed into each other face first. "Ouch…" Sasha said, rubbing her cheek. "Are you okay?"

Hitoshi rolled over and sat up. "Yeah, more or less. What the hell was that?" As if Dan had heard him, a window popped up out of nowhere with the captain's face in it.

"This is Captain Shroads. We are now going to Combat Status One. Please get to your stations immediately!" The window disappeared and Hitoshi hopped to his feet.

"You're going?" she asked.

"I have to, but we aren't done here yet," he replied. "I'm sorry about earlier. You know how I am." He gave her one of his rare smiles and ran away towards the bridge. She half-smiled and tilted her head. 

"Baka. Kimi o ai shiteru."

"Sorry I wasn't able to finish fixing the stabilizers before the first blast hit us," Phil Behr, the ship's more-than-capable mechanic told the captain through a comm window. "I think we'll be finished before the actual battle begins, though."

"I hate to tell you, but this is the actual battle," Dan replied. "There's a vicious cloud of Jovians from here to the Sea of Tranquility, so you'd better hope we don't get hit very often before you have that fixed." The window closed and Dan turned back to the front of the bridge. Behind him, the door opened quickly. "Welcome back, everyone," he said without turning around. "I'm glad you could make it."

"I imagine this is a lot like the beginning of Nadesico's war was. The only difference is that they were on Mars," Hitoshi stated as he climbed into his seat. Before long, everyone was in position and battle-ready.

"Please have all Aestivalis and Delphinium launch immediately," the captain ordered. He looked to his left and saw the admiral take his seat. "Are you ready too, sir?"

"Oh yes, go ahead and commence the attack," he replied.

Dan smiled and nodded. "Okay everyone, let's get ready to take back our Moon!"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	7. Through Love and Through War

"It looks like everything is coming to a head. Not only is the Third Battle of the Moon beginning, but the personal battles being waged on board the ship are also heating up. It looked like a resolution to my problem was close, but then we got attacked. Oh, and did I mention there is a spy on board?"

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

**A Destiny Star**

**Chapter 7: Through Love and Through War**

"All Aestivalis have been configured for zero-G. Open the hangar bay and launch all mecha!" the mechanic Doug called throughout the hangar. Everyone without a pilot suit cleared out of the hangar, and those who did have pilot suits grabbed on to something to keep from being sucked out into the vacuum of space when the pressure was let out.

"This is Shin Hiradeki in the Red Aestivalis!" Shin announced. "I'm going to get out of here, so get the hell out of my way!" His Aestivalis was waving its hand through the air to motion everyone to move. The Aestivalis positioned its feet in front of the magnetic catapult and it was soon hurled into space.

"What a showoff," Hitoshi commented as the red streak flew ahead of the ship. It was seconds before the other four Aestivalis and the two Delphiniums were also launched. "Captain, the Jovians are concentrating their fire on our ship and virtually ignoring the Cosmos. What should we do?"

Kato spoke up. "The Cosmos will act soon enough. In the meantime, configure for the Gravity Blast Cannon II." Hitoshi nodded and his hands began to glow. The foils beneath the ship began to extend.

"Look, they're about to do something," Hana said out loud, pointing at the Cosmos on the starboard side of the bridge's window. Five large wells were exposed on the side of the Cosmos facing the crew. Within seconds, five gravity blasts from that side, and five from the other, tore through space and shredded every Jovian they came in contact with.

"That's amazing," Kato said quietly.

"And each of those is an individual gravity blast cannon," Sosuke added. "That ship must be the most powerful flight worthy vessel in the solar system."

"That reminds me, I do hope Shin wasn't in front of it when it went off," Admiral Minamako said.

"It would serve the damn showoff right," Sosuke said under his breath.

"Chulip at 10:00 o'clock!" Hitoshi called out.

"Not for long!" Hana began doing her thing, and the ship turned quickly to the left. When the Chulip was dead center in front of the Samayahita, the Gravity Blast Cannon II fired. The black energy beam shot through space, through a few enemy battleships, and cut through the Chulip like butter, destroying it and the battleship that had been emerging from it.

"Keep an eye on the Aestivalis," Dan ordered. "They're getting too far ahead of themselves. The Delphinium are fine where they are, but make sure they do not go too far out too."

"Wow, look at that," Hitoshi just said quietly. From every direction around the bridge, blue and white streaks came from behind and charged into the battlefield. "It looks like every Aestivalis within a 100,000 kilometer radius is joining the battle." Everyone was fixated on the swarm of Aestivalis flying past the battleship.

"It's going to be impossible to fire off a gravity blast cannon shot now," Kato observed. "We'd kill way too many in friendly fire."

Dan looked up. Space was filled with the lights of exploding robots, both Earthling and Jovian. "It looks like they've reached their limit," he announced. "Here's what we're going to do. If we take point and fly past the Aestivalis line, we'll be able to safely fire off our gravity blast cannon. Looks like the Aestivalis aren't going to advance any farther anyway without our help, so we might as well give it to them."

"Sir, with all due respect," Hana interjected, "the Cosmos has not given us orders to do something like that, and they are technically the ones in charge here."

Dan smiled. "Well, if they don't like it…Full speed ahead, Hana!" She acknowledged this and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Come in, Samayahita!" a voice shouted. Everyone gasped as a communications window opened in front of the bridge with the face of Nagare Akatsuki. "What are you doing? You're not sticking to the battle plan at all, Samayahita."

Everyone looked at Sosuke expectantly. "Yes, it's from the Cosmos," he confirmed.

Dan composed himself quickly. "First of all, Chairman Akatsuki, let me just say what an unexpected pleasure it is to have you directing the battle from the Cosmos." Lying was not Dan's strong suit, but he was confident that he sounded convincing enough. "Second, we have come to a general consensus over here that it would be in the best interest for everyone involved if the Samayahita took point and moved ahead of the Aestivalis line. As you are already aware, we cannot fire the gravity blast cannon with all of these friendlies in front of us. Once we move ahead of the Aestivalis, we can efficiently use the show-stopping number on our ship to put a quick end to this battle."

Akatsuki seemed to roll this comment over in his mind. Finally, he smiled. "Okay, here's the plan. You take the Samayahita and place her directly in front of the Cosmos. We will configure the multi-barrel gravity blast cannon on our ship to spray fire all around you, but not actually at you. Basically, you'll be in the center of a cone of gravity blasts. Together, we shall move our two ships ahead and destroy the Jovians! This is our moon, and we will take it back together!" The window closed and a smaller window appeared in front of Hana containing the vectors that the Cosmos planned on following for this new plan.

Dan let out a long sigh. "Well, I would say that went rather well." Admiral Minamako smiled. The Cosmos slowly faded from view behind the bridge and the ship fell in line in front of the Nadesico's sister ship. "Okay, now begin moving us ahead of those UEAF mecha," Dan commanded. Hana began typing in the information and the battle scene shifted as the ship began to move.

Kadin was busy typing a paper he planned on submitting to the Nergal Scientific Division as the battle got underway. He just finished his thesis when there was a loud, obnoxious knock on the door. Kadin picked up a glass figurine and hefted it in his hand. "Come in!" he shouted. The door slid open and Victor began to walk into the room. As he did, he was greeted with a small figurine impacting his head. Victor shouted in pain and grabbed the point of impact.

"Damn it, what the hell did you do that for?" Victor shouted.

"I don't know, but it sure was funny," Kadin laughed. Victor growled and found a seat next to Kadin.

"Okay, fine, we're past that. Now then, please do tell me everything you know about the Martian ruins."

Kadin saved the document he was working on and closed it. He then opened one of the many saved documents in the same folder, which quickly came up for Victor to read.

"It's been almost ten years now," Kadin explained. "We discovered it completely by accident. Nergal was drilling a mine in Mars's ice cap when a huge cave-in swallowed the drill and twelve workers. A few days later, a team came in and blasted the rest of the ice from the surface of the cavern. The ruins turned out to be a large cone, with its point about 14 kilometers below the surface of the ice cap. Its existence was a complete coup in our belief regarding life in the universe, let alone life in the solar system. However, the most incredible thing was the fact that some parts of the ruins were still active. It was powered by a large phase transition generator, ensuring its survivability throughout the ages. After all of those discoveries, however, that still was not the most amazing thing found there."

Mars, ten years before the present, was a largely uncivilized territory. Only three civilian colonies existed on the planet's surface. The rest were dedicated to research, and were mostly owned by Nergal Heavy Industries. A breathable atmosphere had been established nearly a century ago, but even without the constraints of a non-Earthian atmosphere, life was still difficult. Out in the polar ice cap region, supplies were hard to come by. Anything that the scientists needed had to be airlifted from one of the civilian colonies, and landing in the mountainous polar region was a task in and of itself.

Kadin Ara had left his brother in the Utopia colony when Nergal summoned him to research a "top secret" discovery in the ice cap. As his flight neared its destination, he started wondering what could possibly be so important in a chunk of ice on a planet that has been dead since the solar system was formed. Still, it was a chance to get out of Utopia and the watchful eye of Captain Misumaru. He was glad that the admiral was supposedly heading for Earth within the next year, since he hated having a UEAF captain breathing down his neck.

The steward walked in with a glass of bourbon. "Sir, we will be landing shortly. Because the landing may be a bit bumpy, we ask that you please buckle yourself in securely. It will not be long before you know everything that has taken place here in the ice cap." He left the bourbon for Kadin and walked out.

Upon his arrival, Kadin was given an artificial fur coat and led to a large tent. Dr. Phillip Behr greeted him and handed him a folder. "Thank you for coming all this way from Utopia. I know that you had a great deal of work to do back there regarding the structure and programming of soil-cultivating nano-machines, and I hope you will forgive us for taking you away from home on such short notice."

"Oh, it's no problem at all!" Kadin shouted with a dismissive and very exaggerated wave. "Here, have some liquor." He tossed the glass of bourbon into the air, spilling it all over Dr. Behr.

Phillip did not say anything, he just took out a handkerchief and began drying himself. "Yes, they told me you had adult ADHD, but I did not think it was quite this bad. Still, a young 22 year old with your credentials is hard to come by, and you are certainly one of the most brilliant scientists on the planet." Phil put away his handkerchief and motioned for Kadin to follow him to the table, where a young woman was sitting. "Please meet Miss Inez Fressange, age 17, likely the most intelligent person on the planet Mars." The young woman stood up and smiled at Kadin.

"It's nice to finally get a chance to meet you, Kadin," she said quickly. "I've read all about your work in the field of nano-technology. It's quite impressive."

Kadin laughed loudly. "Why, it's nothing really, ma'am. It's just all part of keeping life on Mars possible!" Young Miss Fressange laughed nervously.

Phil cleared his throat. "At any rate, I imagine you wonder why you are both here. Mr. Ara, Miss Fressange, if you could follow me, please." He opened the flap of the tent and pulled his coat up around his neck. Inez and Kadin did the same thing and followed the young man out into the cold Martian wind.

"It's nice to see that there's a reason that we're here," Kadin commented. "They wouldn't tell me anything whatsoever on the flight."

Miss Fressange spoke up. "I have to agree with my colleague here. You do know that we are working on something very important at Olympus Mons, and having me away is going to complicate things."

Phil stopped and turned around. "Yes, yes, I know all about your nano-machines and your phase transition engines, but this…well this just overshadows them all." He led them forward again, and stopped in front of a giant hole in the ground.

"Oh my God," Inez whispered in amazement. Before them was a huge city built into the sides of the hole.

"A city, several kilometers deep, trapped in the polar ice cap. It's like something from Gekiganger," Kadin said. "The question is, who built it?"

"Oh, let me explain," Inez said quickly before Phil could speak. "This city is obviously the product of an ancient Martian race that existed long before humans even began to take form on Earth. They are the ones who built the phase transition engines that we found in Olympus Mons. My hypothesis is further supported by the fact that this city is made completely from the same material that the ancient battleship in Olympus."

Phil rubbed his hands together and blew into them. "Yes, that's correct, Miss Fressange. The material, called Chulip Crystal, is found only here on Mars. We are not sure yet what exactly this material is made of chemically, for it is very unstable, and all experiments to determine the molecular structure have met with failure. Every time we run an experiment, the crystal breaks apart into subatomic particles, and even those particles vanish from our plane of reality. We know it defies the laws of physics, but it seems as though the Chulip Crystal teleports away from the lab."

"Sir, if I may," Kadin interrupted, "whose idea was it to call it Chulip Crystal?"

"Please, follow me," Phil said, not answering Kadin's question at all. Soon, Phil, Miss Fressange, and Kadin were descending into the Martian ruins in a lift suspended by a crane at the surface. They could only go down about 600 meters before the crane could go no farther. The trio disembarked from the makeshift lift and began walking through the city on foot. "As you can see, this city is made entirely from Chulip Crystal, and it is equipped with a phase transition generator as its source of power," Phil explained.

Kadin laughed. "You say that as if it still needed power or something!" As if on cue, the hallway that the trio was descending lit up as bright lines of light shot down the hallway. Feeling as though he had made a scientific error, Kadin felt foolish.

"As a matter of fact, a great portion of the ruin is still active," Phil revealed. "As for the name Chulip Crystal…" Phil led them to a large room with a large, cobalt blue chunk of the crystal. The base of the massive structure was solid and firmly rooted into the ground. Above the midsection, however, the structure opened up like a flower in bloom. "And this, my friends is a Chulip."

"Okay, so _that's_ a Chulip, but _what's_ a Chulip?" Kadin asked. He was amazed by the size of the mass of Chulip Crystal. It was much larger than even the largest battleships in the UEAF.

"Chulip is actually an acronym, but it has caught on so well that we just use it as the name for these Chulip Crystal blossoms. C.H.U.L.I.P. stands for Cellular Hangover from Unknown Labyrinthine Intelligence of Prehistoric age. Mostly, though, it came from the Japanese word for tulip." Phil smiled at that trivial fact, and young Inez sighed.

"I hate it when people make up an acronym before they make up what it stands for," she said quietly. "At any rate, what do these things do?"

Phil cleared his throat. "We have been experimenting around with that, actually. It seems as though it facilitates teleportation of some sort, with the process being similar to the teleportation of the small crystals in the lab. The only problem is that we send probes and cameras through, and they never come back. It had become so dangerous that we had to find a way of sealing it off. This Chulip is no longer operational."

"'Kay, well let's go home then," Kadin said. He started to walk away when Phil grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait," Phil said, "don't you want to see the main attraction?" He led them down another corridor, one that seemed to stretch on for many miles. "What we are doing now," he explained, "is traveling through a downward spiraling corridor to the center of the ruins. What lies in wait for us at the bottom is why you are all here."

It took nearly an hour, but they finally made their way to the bottom of the ruin. They entered the center and looked straight up through fourteen kilometers of air and distortion fields. Phil directed their attention to a large cube on a pedestal in the very center of the cone. "This is it, this is the part of the ruin that we cannot explain."

The cube itself was engraved with lines that looked like the connections on a circuit board. It did not seem to be connected to the ground physically, but it must have benn able to receive energy from conduits beneath it. "What is this?" Inez asked.

"God only knows," Phil replied. "It seems to come to life every time we perform one of our experiments with teleportation. We really cannot explain it, unfortunately, so for our purposes we are going to leave it alone for now. What's more intriguing is this room over here. When we found it, it was sealed off from the inside, but we managed to break in. The contents of the room were a real paradigm shift, as you will soon see." He led them to an antechamber off to the side of the ruin unit. "I hope you have good hearts," he joked. The young Miss Fressange and Kadin did not find it all that amusing.

The room was typical of the other chambers inside the ruin. Its walls were made of Chulip Crystal, and there were pieces that seemed to be some sort of Chulip Crystal furniture scattered around the room. Inez was not terribly impressed with the room until someone caught her eye. There was a little man sitting in one of the "chairs" in the far corner. As her eyes adjusted fully to the dark, she let out a scream. That "little man" was an alien being!

"Oh my God, is that what I think it is?" she asked with a shaky voice. Her left hand pointed slowly at the being in the corner of the room, and she slowly backed away. Kadin put his hand over his mouth, completely awestruck

"Yes, that is indeed a Martian. However, you will find that it is quite dead, as are the other seven in this room," Phil explained. He took out a flashlight and shined it in succession on each of the bodies that were in chairs or sprawled on the floor.

"These Martians look just like the stereotypical aliens in movies and alleged idiot farmer abductions that happen in the agricultural areas of Earth," Kadin observed. The Martians were small in stature, and very slim. They also had disproportionately large, teardrop shaped heads and large, almond-shaped black eyes.

Inez was still somewhat in shock, but was quickly regaining her composure. "If the Martians are dead, why haven't they decomposed?"

Phil took out a pocket watch and checked the time. "Sorry, but it is time to go. I will answer your question once we get back to the surface." They quickly left the eerie chamber and the deceased beings within.

Back on the surface, Phil took a deep breath of fresh air. "Look around and tell me what you see." He stretched his arms and emphasized the surroundings.

"It's barren and useless, like your mother," Kadin replied. "What's the point?"

Phil ignored Kadin's comment and replied, "Miss Fressange asked me why the Martians had not decomposed although they had been dead for millions of years. But if you will recall, _everything_ on Mars has been dead for millions of years. Based on the discovery of Martian bodies intact, it is not such a leap of logic to assume that whatever killed the Martians caused everything on the planet to die off simultaneously. The question is, what could possibly kill off every organism on the entire planet at the same time?"

"Well," Inez suggested, "it didn't have to be simultaneous for everything. I mean, when a human decomposes, it does not vanish instantly."

"Let me ask you a question myself, Fressange-y," Kadin interrupted. "Why didn't they dehydrate and blow away? I mean, there has not been any water here in millions of years, and they're quite dead in there."

"Perhaps I can explain that one," Phil interjected. "You see, those beings have skin that appeared to be at one time very similar to reptile skin. However, based on the results of the autopsy that we performed on one of the creatures, it seems that whenever they die, their skin hardens instantly since water is no longer pumped into the skin cells, sort of like flash fossilization. This forms a protective shell that is airtight and water tight, keeping the inside structures intact, provided they did not die with their mouths open. They have no other openings to speak of besides the mouth, so it is possible for the liquid organs inside to stay relatively solid. I know what you are wondering, Miss Fressange, and the answer is yes, their anatomy, at least as far as molecular, cellular, and tissue biology are concerned, is quite similar to ours. However, they have a pseudo-circulatory system based on water movement and diffusion." He cracked his neck. "I really do not have the time to go over it with you right now, and the written documents from the autopsy are classified. Why don't I get back to you later about this? You will be here a few days, so there will be plenty of time to go over the discoveries we've made."

Kadin stopped talking and opened a document on his computer. Victor raised an agitated eyebrow and attempted to look Kadin in the eye. "Well, what about the anatomy? Don't tell me you are going to leave me hanging about the Martians!"

Kadin gave Victor an uninterested glance. "Classified," he said. Victor slammed his fist against the wall.

"I am a top ranking executive in Nergal Heavy Industries, goddamn it! I have a right to know about this! You can't keep this a secret forever! If you won't talk, maybe I'll hunt down Inez Fressange or Phillip Behr!"

"Inez Fressange was on Mars when the Jovians attacked, and Phillip Behr was killed in an organic boson jumping accident. Good luck with that." Kadin calmly ignored Victor's fits of anger behind him.

"Fine, I'll just go to the Chairman and get his permission myself. He's on the Cosmos, you know. It won't be long until I know the truth." With that, Victor furiously stormed out of the room. Once Kadin's door closed, he started laughing.

"What a moron. I'm glad I chucked a figurine at him."

The plan was working beautifully. The Cosmos was creating a cone of safety around the Samayahita, while the Samayahita pivoted and turned in order to fire its Gravity Blast Cannon II at the targets of highest priority. All Aestivalis held back to defend the rest of the fleet from grasshoppers.

"Hitoshi, there is a Chulip on the surface of the moon that I do not care for," Dan announced. "By the looks of it, it is the only Chulip remaining in the Sea of Tranquility. Do you think you could sink it?" Hitoshi announced the affirmative, and he linked with the computer to accurately aim the Gravity Blast Cannon II at the offending Chulip. The bow of the ship made a slight dip towards the surface of the moon, and within seconds, a black beam fired from the front and rapidly bore down on its target. A small explosion on the surface of the moon confirmed the success of the shot. Seconds later, an alarm loudly resonated throughout the entire ship.

"What the hell?" Sosuke shouted quickly. "Captain, there's something _within_ our distortion field!" Dan shot a very concerned look at Sosuke and then quickly glanced at Hitoshi.

"It seems as though it is a giant humanoid mecha. I have no honest idea how it…" Hitoshi stopped in mid sentence as the mecha disappeared from the lower left quadrant within the distortion field, and reappeared right in front of the bridge.

"A boson jumping robot?" Kato said incredulously. "There's just no way in hell we can deal with something like that."

"It's going to fire!" Hana shouted. She was right. The giant mecha raised its right hand towards the bridge, and in its palm it had a missile tube that must have extended up inside the robot's arm.

Just as the goliath was about to fire, a blue land-type Aestivalis flew in from the left and tackled it. The missile just barely missed the bridge and slammed against the back of their distortion field.

"Sosuke, who is in that Aestivalis?" Dan asked demandingly. Sosuke listened for a second.

"It's Sasha," he finally said. Hitoshi's eyes went wide.

"Is she absolutely out of her mind?" he shouted at no one in particular. "She's going to get killed! That thing is twice as big as an Aestivalis, and it has a much more powerful distortion field. Captain, you have to do something!" Dan looked helplessly down at Hitoshi, and then out the window to see the Aestivalis trying to crack the giant robot's distortion field.

Unfortunately for Sasha, the giant robot also had a miniature gravity blast cannon. Every time she got near it, it would fire the scaled down cannon and force her to either evade or die. Not only that, but it also seemed to have the ability to boson jump away from danger. "This sucks, this sucks, this sucks!" she shouted as she tried in vain to engage the huge machine.

Hitoshi tore Sosuke's headset off of his ear and started shouting into it. "Sasha, what the hell are you doing? You're not a pilot, get out of there and leave it to someone who knows how to fly an Aestivalis! For that matter, you're in a land frame, you idiot! Get out of there!" Quickly, Sosuke stood up and began walking towards the door.

"Captain," he said, "do I have permission to take an Aestivalis?" He showed Dan his IFS implant. "I am a qualified pilot, after all."

Dan did not reply, he just motioned for Sosuke to make a quick exit. Once, he had gone, Dan told Hitoshi, "You will act as our communications officer for the time being. It makes little difference, since you _are_ holding Sosuke's headset." It did not look as though Hitoshi had heard, however. He was fixated on the fight in front of them.

"She must be suicidal to take a land frame into combat in a zero-G environment!" Sosuke muttered loudly as he got his pilot suit on and climbed into an aerial flight type Aestivalis. "This isn't exactly the best choice in space either, but it's not quite as insane." He motioned for Douglas, the chief mechanic. "I'm going out now. Wish me luck." Douglas gave the thumbs up, and everyone evacuated the staging area. The room depressurized and the Aestivalis was rapidly fired from the electromagnetic catapult.

The giant mecha began slamming its fists into Sasha's Aestivalis, causing major damage to the much smaller machine. After the first hit, the legs were no longer mobile. After the second hit, the circuits controlling the body outside the assault pit were damaged beyond repair. Thinking quickly, Sasha jettisoned the assault pit from the Aestivalis just before the third hit, which destroyed the torso.

Hitoshi shouted one more time into the headset. "Sasha, are you still alive?"

"Yes, more or less," she replied shakily. The giant enemy started chasing after the assault pit, until it noticed Sosuke's Aestivalis bearing down on it. It paused temporarily to decide which target to pursue. "Hitoshi, if I die, I think there's something I should tell you."

"Sasha, please, you're not going to die," Hitoshi said, his throat instantly drying.

Sasha whimpered over the communication channel. A visible window was not open, so the only person who could hear her was the one wearing the communications officer's headset: Hitoshi. "The verniers on my assault pit aren't functioning. My oxygen is leaking. If that thing isn't destroyed soon, it is going to destroy the Samayahita. Hitoshi, this may be it, and I have on last thing to say. Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, you are the one that I love."

Hitoshi dropped the headset in shock. "Sasha," he said quietly, "I love you too. Please come back to me." He looked straight ahead at the fight between Sosuke and the giant Jovian mecha. "Sosuke, kick his ass!"

"You didn't think I'd let you take all of the fun, did you?" A window popped up in front of the bridge with the face of Shin Hiradeki. "How about dropping your distortion field for a second so I can make it through?" Ahead of the Samayahita, everyone could see the red Aestivalis flying directly towards the battleship.

"Yes, we can comply with that," Dan said. "Hitoshi, can you…" Dan trailed off when he realized Hitoshi was already one step ahead of him. Just as Shin's red Aestivalis was about to slam headfirst into the distortion field, it dropped for a split second, allowing him inside. It then immediately came back up to prevent the Jovian fleet from doing any further damage to the Samayahita.

Hitoshi opened a communications window displaying Sosuke. "Sosuke, could you please, I mean, now that Shin is there, could you drop Sasha's assault pit off in the Aestivalis staging area? You can go right back out after you finish."

"Hell, I'm not a full time pilot anymore anyway. I'd rather leave it to someone who knows what the hell they're doing," Sosuke replied. "I might come back out after to back up the idiot, though." As soon as he said that, another window popped up displaying Shin's face.

"Hey, I heard that, and I completely resent it!" he shouted. "I don't care what you think, I'm a damn good pilot, and I'm going to prove it to all present right now!" The red Aestivalis slammed into the Jovian mecha with its distortion field, throwing the Jovian off balance, and throwing Shin's Aestivalis in a completely opposite direction. "Kuso, that wasn't part of my plan!"

Meanwhile, Sosuke quickly grabbed the assault pit containing the co-science officer. "Are you still okay, Sasha?" Sosuke asked. A small, distorted communications window appeared with her face.

"I'm fine, thank you. Could you please get me out of here before I have a panic attack or something?" she said, laughing nervously. Sosuke quickly boosted towards the entrance to the Aestivalis hangar. Fortunately, the Jovian no longer seemed to perceive him or his cargo a threat any longer and began focusing on the red Aestivalis. Shin looked like a gnat flying around the goliath Jovian unit, and the illusion was completed when the Jovian mech began swatting at him.

"Captain, I am turning over all functions of the ship to you," Hitoshi said as he quickly stood up. He planned on rushing down to the hangar to find out how Sasha was doing, but Dan stopped him.

"I realize how this must feel for you, and I would love nothing more than to be allowed to let you go down there," he said. "However, as the science officer, you perform many of the ship's most vital functions. During a battle situation, we cannot do without you." Dan lowered his head sympathetically. To the others on the bridge, it looked as though Dan felt as badly as Hitoshi. "Please don't hold this against me. You can go as soon as the battle ceases."

Hitoshi turned and looked straight into Dan's eye. "Captain, I understand. I will not hold it against you." He smiled before turning and sitting down. "Take good care of her, Sosuke," he whispered to himself. To his right, Hana smiled.

"_I just hope she is there for him to go to after the battle," _she thought to herself.

Shin started firing his assault rifle at the gargantuan machine, and it in turn boson jumped away from the rounds. "Hey guys, watch this!" he shouted to the bridge crew. He waited two seconds and then fired his right arm in what seemed to everyone to be a random direction. Just as the arm got about 30 meters away from the Aestivalis, the Jovian machine reappeared right in the direct path of the flying fist. Before it had a chance to raise its distortion field again, the arm of the Aestivalis penetrated deeply into the housing for the gravity blast cannon. After a few seconds, the Jovian machine exploded in a brilliant ball of light. "Not bad, eh?" Shin asked cockily. Everyone on the bridge rolled their eyes.

"Captain, look at that!" Admiral Minamako said suddenly. It appeared to everyone as if the Jovians were retreating. "I guess they decided they had lost enough. After all, we did manage to sink 65 of their vessels while only losing 20 of our own. It's all thanks to the Samayahita and the Cosmos. We should be very proud of ourselves."

Dan did not care at all, he was more concerned about his science officer. "Hitoshi, turn over control of the Samayahita to me, and then you can go down and see her." Before he knew it, the manual controls for the battleship activated in front of him, and Hitoshi was rapidly up the steps and out the door. "That was fast," Dan said. "Kato, please maintain distortion field integrity while the Jovians continue their retreat. Who knows what they could do on their way out."

"Sensors indicate UEAF battleships are landing in the Sea of Tranquility," Kato informed him. "It seems as though Tranquility Base is still intact after all of this time. I wonder if anyone survived the Jovian occupation."

Hitoshi was running as quickly as he could down towards the hangar to see if Sasha was okay. He was just entering a lift when he slammed into someone trying to get out. "Oh! I'm so sorry, ma'am," he said quickly, reaching down to help her pick up the papers that had spilled from her folder.

She stood up and pushed her glasses up. "That's no problem, sir. Thank you for your help." Hitoshi kept an eye on her as she walked away. The young woman was very beautiful, with very long brunette hair and a slim build.

"I've seen her somewhere before, not on the Samayahita. The question is, where?" Hitoshi thought for a second, and then remembered where he was going. He quickly got into the lift and headed for the hangar.

"Are you okay?" Sosuke asked as he quickly opened the hatch to Sasha's assault pit. She climbed out, shaken but in one piece.

"I'm fine, but I feel a little woozy. The pressure was getting kind of low in there at the end. Thank you for saving me."

Hitoshi ran into the room just in time to see her float out the door with Sosuke close behind. Sosuke caught sight of him and waved him over as the two of them exited. Catching himself on the corner of the door he had just exited, Hitoshi changed the direction he was floating and managed to enter the hallway after them. Unfortunately, he lost sight of them once they rounded the corner. "They must have gone to sick bay," he said to himself.

"The Jovians have all pulled back to the Ptolemaeus Crater," Kato informed the captain. "It looks as though they have joined with their main forces and are most likely going to start a counterattack within the next 48 to 72 hours." He paused. "Oh, an incoming message from the Cosmos, captain."

Nagare Akatsuki's face appeared in a communications window in the front of the bridge. "Hey guys, you did a wonderful job," he said. He began to laugh, but then stopped and looked at the crew. "Aren't you missing a few people?"

"It's a long story," Dan explained. "You can read about it in the debriefing file later. Right now, we need to focus on preparing for the Jovian counterattack."

"Yes, that's right," Akatsuki stated calmly. "Fortunately, it looks like the base was left completely unharmed. I don't think the Jovian Lizards even bothered to go inside. Several of our ships are landing there already and getting refueled. Because we were both in the front lines, they are reserving a place for both of our ships. If you are ready, go ahead down and have them work on the Samayahita."

"Thank you, Chairman. I'll do that." The communications window closed, and Dan looked directly at Hana. "Do you think you can handle landing on the moon?" he asked. She cracked her knuckles and smiled.

"Are you kidding? I could land on a penny if I had to."

Meanwhile, Hitoshi made his way down to sick bay. He stopped short of opening the door and waited for a second. "_If I go in there, what will I say? What can someone say after a situation like this?" _Thinking carefully, he wondered if maybe he should see if Unmeihoshi could find some data files regarding a similar situation. Just before he spoke up, however, the door opened and Sosuke stepped out.

"Oh, hey there. What are you doing?" he asked. Hitoshi smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "You know she's waiting for you. You'd better get in there and say hi." And with that, Sosuke walked away.

"Okay, here goes," Hitoshi said. He quietly opened the door and walked into sick bay. It was a large room lined with many beds for those who were injured in battle: the curse of a battleship in time of war. Most of the beds were empty, although one of the crewmembers had contracted appendicitis earlier in the week and was recovering in the corner. Finally, he caught sight of the patient he was looking for. She was lying in the corner, looking as if she was already asleep.

"Excuse me, but you're Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, aren't you?" the on-duty nurse asked as he walked towards Sasha's bed.

"Yes, why?"

"The bridge asked me to tell you that there's an important message for you."

"Important message? From who?"

"From the _Nadesico_."

TO BE CONTINUED…


	8. Revelations Without Purpose

"It took a great deal of effort, but it looks like the United Earth Armed Forces have finally gained a foothold on the Moon. Hopefully, Sasha Kirei will still be around to enjoy the victory. As a result of this victory, I am sure Victor will also want to gain more knowledge about the Martians. Let's hope he does not become too cocky after this."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

**A Destiny Star**

Chapter 8: Revelations Without Purpose 

"How could there be a message for me from the Nadesico?" Hitoshi asked. "The Nadesico has been gone for seven months!"

"Don't ask me," the nurse said. "I'm only the messenger."

Hitoshi sighed. "Well, I don't have time for that anyway." He ran past the nurse and approached Sasha's bed quietly. She looked as though she was sleeping, and he did not want to wake her. "I will wait here for you to wake up," he whispered. "Everything is going to be fine." Quietly he moved a chair next to the bed and sat down.

"Captain Shroads, welcome to Tranquility Base," Nagare Akatsuki said as Dan walked down the corridor into the base. Both the Samayahita and the Cosmos had already docked and the crews were allowed a few hours of shore leave while the ships were re-supplying and refueling.

"Chairman Akatsuki, how nice it is to meet face to face," he said congenially, though he could not care less about meeting the man who ran Nergal. "How long do you think it will take before the ships are taken care of?"

The chairman put his arms behind his head, and the two began walking towards the cafeteria. "It won't be long, now that the base is being manned by several of the crewmembers from a few of the battleships. Our occupation of this base was pretty efficient. I'm impressed with the military's might."

"Yes, well, let's not forget the Jovians are still the dominant force here on the Moon," Dan commented.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Hopefully that will change soon, just as soon as we start work on our newer battleships." They arrived at the cafeteria and Akatsuki graciously held the door for the captain. "At any rate, the tide is turning in the war at last, and it won't be long until we'll be able to go back to Mars and actually make a difference this time." Dan sighed. He regarded Project Schiaparelli as a complete waste of resources and also the direct cause of the flagrant destruction of the Nadesico. Akatsuki looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You find something wrong with taking back Mars?"

"No, it's not that, Chairman Akatsuki…"

"Please, call me Nagare," Akatsuki interrupted.

"…Nagare, but it's just that I don't want to see our entire fleet end up like the Nadesico."

Akatsuki laughed obnoxiously. "Don't worry, Captain. By the time we'd be going back to Mars, the Jovian Lizards would have been completely purged from the Earth Sphere. Once we get back to the red planet, we will vastly outnumber the enemy."

The line in the cafeteria was quite short, and it was not long before the pair managed to get a meal. Both of them ordered the Tranquility Base Tonkatsu Combo and quickly found a seat in the corner of the room. "Doesn't it worry you, though? I mean, the Jovians have been using unmanned weapons this whole time. No one even knows what a Jovian Lizard looks like. Because of this, wouldn't it be logical to assume they have an unlimited supply of unmanned grasshoppers and jiros? After all, if they were running out of those machines, they would start using manned vessels, right?"

"That makes sense, I suppose. Although by the time this war is over, they're going to need to use vessels with pilots, because we'll tear through every single one of their stupid computerized machines." Dan pretended to agree and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.

"_The UEAF is getting ahead of itself just because we made it back to the moon,"_ the captain thought to himself.

It had been several hours by the time Sasha woke up from her stress-induced slumber. She rose and found that Hitoshi was sitting in a chair next to her, his head resting on the edge of the bed. "That's so sweet," she said quietly. The nurse walked over to Sasha with a glass of water. "How long has he been here?"

The nurse set the water on the table next to her. "He got here just after you fell asleep. Even though he got a priority message from the Nadesico, he chose to wait here until you woke up."

Sasha gasped. "The _Nadesico_?" She began to shake Hitoshi. "Wake up, come on!" He sleepily mumbled. "Come on you idiot, get up!"

"What is it…Sasha!" He embraced her as soon as he regained consciousness. "I'm so glad you're okay. You _are_ okay, right?"

"I'm fine," she replied, "but you had better go find out what your message is. I know you have been researching the Nadesico a great deal lately, and I don't want to keep you from finding out what this message is."

"I'm not leaving until you can come with me," he replied. "The message can wait for me."

The nurse cleared her throat. "Actually, Miss Kirei is just fine. If you are feeling better, you are free to go." Sasha jumped out of bed and thanked the nurse, and her and Hitoshi walked out of the room quickly.

"Are we going to the bridge?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Let me check." Hitoshi used his communicator watch to place a call to the bridge. The window opened, but no one was sitting in Sosuke's seat. "Where is he?"

Suddenly, he heard voices in the background.

"I thought you disabled all communication lines to the bridge," a woman's voice asked.

"Damn it, what perfect timing. No, only Hitoshi can do that," a man's voice replied.

Hitoshi and Sasha stopped walking. "I hope they're not doing what I think they're doing…" he said. A second later, Sosuke appeared in the window.

"Oh, it's you. How's Sasha doing?"

Hitoshi raised an eyebrow. "She's fine. We were just on our way back, actually."

"Oh, that's good," Sosuke replied. "That means Hana and I will be off duty." He heard Hana giggle in the background.

"Right, whatever. Listen, is there a message for me from the Nadesico?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot all about that," Sosuke said quickly. "It's all ready to play over at your work station."

"Thanks," Hitoshi replied, "I'll be there in ten."

Akatsuki and Dan were just finishing their meal and throwing away their garbage when Victor quickly entered the cafeteria and approached the pair. "Good afternoon, Chairman Akatsuki, how are you?"

"Oh? Victor Nakasone? I'm just fine, how are you?" Akatsuki looked away from Victor and rolled his eyes. Dan noticed this and found it amusing.

"_So, Akatsuki hates Victor just as much as we do," _he thought to himself.

"I'm fine, sir. I just wanted to ask you a favor," Victor said. He handed the chairman a paper. "Could I get you to sign this for me? It is a written consent form that would allow me to have access to the information Kadin Ara has stored on his computer, and also would allow him to answer any questions I ask about this information."

Akatsuki looked over the form. "Well, this stuff is classified, but I don't see any harm in him telling you." He took out a pen and quickly signed his name on the bottom. Victor bowed in appreciation and quickly ran out of the cafeteria. "Pain in the ass…" Akatsuki mumbled under his breath. Dan could not help but smile.

Sasha and Hitoshi reached the bridge within ten minutes of their conversation with Sosuke. When they opened the door, Sosuke and Hana ran out of the room hand in hand. "Good luck with your message thing," Sosuke called down the hall. Hitoshi and Hana just stared at them until they rounded the corner.

"That was really disturbing," he said quietly. Sasha just nodded. The pair quickly entered the room and descended the steps. They both squeezed onto the science officer chair and anxiously stared at the window floating in front of them. On the window was a large triangle with the Japanese word for "play" written on it in kanji.

"So, are you ready?" she asked as he slowly reached up to press the play button.

"Yeah, but I can't imagine where this message came from. It doesn't make sense, since the Nadesico has been gone for so long." Finally, he pressed the play button, and the screen doubled in size. On the screen was a very young girl, probably about twelve years old. She had yellow eyes like Hitoshi and Sasha, and light blue hair done up in pigtails.

"Hello, my name is Ruri Hoshino, and I am the science officer of the High Mobile Battleship Nadesico," the girl on the window said. "I hope this message somehow finds its way to Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, the designated recipient of this file."

"I wonder when this could have been sent," Hitoshi said quietly. "She's sitting on the Nadesico's bridge, and there was only about a two month window between the first time the Nadesico launched and the time it boson jumped."

Ruri began to speak again. "The date this message is being recorded is October 1st, 2196, and the perceived shipboard time is 21:40. Unfortunately, the matter of discussion is not something that can be revealed through a recording. As you may or may not know, the Nadesico is on its way to Mars, so it may be a fair amount of time before we can arrange a face to face meeting. Not only that, but who knows when you may be sent off to the military. I know you have been raised in a manner similar to the way I was, so it is pretty obvious to me that the military or Nergal will use you to perform a task much like the one I perform here on the Nadesico. All of this aside, however, I think it would be prudent to meet face to face. What I have to say involves your parents, and I do not feel safe revealing my findings to you in a recording that could potentially fall into the wrong hands. As soon as the Nadesico returns from its mission to the red planet, I will contact you. Using the Nadesico's computer, it will be much easier for me to track you down than it would be for you to track me down. Hopefully, I will be in touch with you within the next six months. In the meantime, do not trust Nergal Heavy Industries. That being said, I cannot at this time accurately determine the true nature of the events surrounding the occurrence that took place on Mars when you were born, but I do know that you need to be very careful in your dealings with the company."

Ruri stood up and bowed. "Thank you very much for your time." The window closed and a second recording opened up. This time, it was a middle-aged man in a UEAF admiral's uniform.

"Hello, my name is Admiral Markos Zuniga of the United Earth Armed Forces. This message has been sitting on my desk for the past eight months. I am very sorry I did not forward it to you sooner, but I had no idea it was buried under the obscene pile of paperwork I have had to do ever since the Big Barrier was trashed when the Nadesico blasted its way out of the atmosphere. At any rate, Lieutenant, I hope that message has helped you in some way. Unfortunately for you, Ruri Hoshino is long gone, but at least the message got through." He was about to reach down to his desk to shut off the recorder and then stopped. "Oh, just a little aside that is completely off the record: Take Hoshino's advice. Don't trust Nergal." Finally, the recording ended and the window disappeared.

Hitoshi punched the nano-board as hard as he could. "Damn it, damn it to hell!" he shouted loudly. Sasha stood up, a little startled by the outburst.

"It can't be helped," she said calmly. "This is something that you couldn't have foreseen, Markos couldn't have foreseen, and Ruri could not have foreseen."

"Damn it, if only I knew where she found out about my parents, then at least I could have found out for myself. As it stands now, that message has done more harm than good, because now I'm angry and upset, and I don't know where to go from here." He stood up and rapidly walked off of the bridge. "I want to be alone now. Keep an eye on things here." She was about to say something, but he was already off of the bridge before she could open her mouth.

Kadin was still working on his most recent thesis regarding the Martian ruins when once again, a loud, obnoxious knock interrupted him. "Well, he's sure persistent," he sighed as he picked up another glass figurine. "Come in!" The door opened and the figurine was airborne. There was no one on the other side of the door this time, however, and the trinket shattered against the wall outside. "Not bad, idiot, come on in." Victor stepped in and closed the door behind him.

"Okay, Kadin, now it's time for you to tell me about the autopsy!" Victor said, slamming his signed permission form down on Kadin's desk.

"Sorry, can't, computer trouble," Kadin replied, still typing away.

Victor growled. "I can see your computer is working just fine!" Kadin picked up the left speaker for his computer and violently slammed it into the monitor, shattering the screen and sending broken glass everywhere.

"Computer trouble," he said again.

"You really are out of your mind, you psycho," Victor said angrily. "If your computer is in such bad shape, just recite what you know from memory and I will come back some time when you aren't acting like a fool."

"Idiot just can't take a hint, can he?" Kadin said loudly. "Okay, you do me a favor and I will tell you the information, which, I might add, will not really do you any good. Haven't you ever heard the expression 'curiosity killed the cat?'"

Victor scoffed. "I'm not worried. My own curiosity will be satisfied, and that's all that matters to me right now. So, what's this favor you want me to do?"

Kadin tapped his chin with his right index finger in an exaggerated manner. "Hmm, let me think for a little. How about if you get me the password for Section A in the Nergal Mainframe?"

"Sorry, no can do," Victor said, almost proudly. "You know only the top executives of Nergal are allowed to access Section A."

"If that's so, then why do you have the password?"

Victor grimaced. "Because I was assigned to the Samayahita, and I was required to give regular reports on the financial situation of both Nergal and our battleship. Section A really only deals with the corporation's finances, so there is nothing there that would help you with your research."

"If I had a damn, I wouldn't give it," Kadin replied. "No password, no Martians."

"I could get fired if I just handed you the password!"

"Whoopee, I don't care. You wouldn't either if you kept your résumé up to date."

Victor quickly became visibly angry. "Damn it, it took me years to get to where I am now! I'm not about to throw it all away for your sake!"

"I thought you weren't afraid to satiate your curiosity by any means necessary."

Victor clenched his fists for a second. He then grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled something down. "Okay, here. I know you hate me, but do me a favor and don't tell anyone I just did that." Kadin folded up the paper and smiled.

"For once, I don't feel like beating you with a stop sign." Kadin stood up and motioned for Victor to take a seat. "Well, four days after our first expedition into the Martian ruins, they showed us information about the autopsy. Phil Behr, Inez Fressange, and I all sat down and had a discussion regarding the results of this autopsy. Unfortunately, before we got very far, Nergal came in and broke up our little party. They wanted to claim the ruins for themselves and make sure no one else had any part in it."

"So they just threw you out?" Victor asked suspiciously. "And you never got a chance to learn anything about the Martians…the way you led me to believe?"

"I got some of the information," Kadin sighed reluctantly. "I found out was that they used osmosis to exchange gasses and their digestive system was completely perfect."

"Completely perfect?"

"They did not produce solid or liquid waste," Kadin explained.

"That's impossible!" Victor exclaimed scornfully. "There's no way everything ingested could have been used. Waste is a fact in any system."

"Say what you want, but you don't know what you're talking about. The digestive enzymes, well, what they had that was analogous to our digestive enzymes, took everything apart and used it for something else. Everything was digested at the molecular level and integrated into the body. Respiration was used for this process somehow, because we found traces of atmosphere in their digestive cavities. Just a little side note, it looks like they were completely vegetarian. Only remains of vegetation were found in their digestive cavities, and it seems only enzymes capable of breaking down plant material were present in their bodies.

"I'd like to also make a note about the fact that vegetation much like ours seemed to exist all over ancient Mars. It consisted of cells nearly identical to the cells in terrestrial life forms. Not only that, but surprisingly enough, it also had a cell wall made of cellulose. If only we could have found some fossilized plants, we could have done some more research about the structures and perhaps we could have made a link between Martian and terrestrial life.

"But I digress. Basically, because the Martians lacked any real teeth, it is only logical to assume they were plant eaters. Either way, they were still dead, and that was the greatest puzzle of all."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Why was that a mystery?"

"Well," Kadin replied, "it led to two mysteries actually. First and foremost, how did they die? We would need to do more research about what could have caused their death on a large scale like that. Despite all of Nergal's research, they still don't know what caused it, so that could be a lost cause. Then, of course, there's the second mystery."

"Well, what is it!"

"The Martians looked exactly like the aliens that people have been reporting in UFO abductions for centuries. With the teardrop heads and the almond eyes, and their characteristic slim build, they looked exactly like we have thought aliens have looked for a long time. Let me ask you something, Victor, could something like that be a coincidence?"

"It would explain a lot." He admitted reluctantly. "If their ships had radial symmetry and were equipped with the ability to move in all directions, like flying saucers, and were equipped with phase transition engines, they could easily perform all of the maneuvers that they can achieve in an atmosphere. A battleship like the Nadesico or Samayahita is designed to travel in one direction at any given time, but with the right system, there's no reason a ship couldn't have the ability to change directions instantly. Add on top of that the ability to boson jump, and it would make it easy for them to disappear from conventional radar like they do. But we'd need more evidence to make a connection like that. Also, you _are_ forgetting that they've been dead for millions of years. That can't bode well for your theory."

"I didn't forget," he replied. "That's why it's just an idea, not a proven fact. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Nergal already had the answer to that one as well." He stood up and motioned to the door. "Victor, I am busy, go away before I beat you to death…with the golden femur of the Mayans!"

"You're certainly as violent as you are psychotic," Victor commented as he exited. Kadin laughed lightly upon hearing this, and set to work running his computer visual output through his communicator.

Dan and Akatsuki were walking down the corridor away from the cafeteria. "The commander of this base, some guy named Malcus Yeagrey requested my presence earlier, but I sort of blew him off to have a meal with you. I hear he was the head of the battleship Orchis during the battle, and once we took the base back, he was placed in charge. I've never met him, but I'm sure he won't be able to resist my charisma. Why don't you come down with me and we can meet him together?" Akatsuki smiled, and Dan sighed.

"I think I met him once a long time ago," Dan said. "I was just a student at the academy at the time, and he was one of the graduates about five years ahead of me. At the graduation party, we exchanged some banter, and I got to know him a bit. Afterwards, I had always wondered what happened to him, since it seemed like we had a lot in common. Actually, it was because I had admired him so much that I decided to pursue being a captain rather than a helmsman as I had intended. However, I doubt he would remember me after all of this time."

"Either way, I hope he can give us some idea what our next plan of attack is," Akatsuki said. "I'm certain the Jovians aren't going to sit still for this." They arrived at the door to the command center and the Chairman pressed a button beneath an intercom.

The intercom came to life and a voice from the other side asked, "Who is this?" It was a woman's voice, and she sounded young and attractive.

"This is Captain Dan Shroads of the Samayahita, and Nergal's Chairman Nagare Akatsuki of the Cosmos here to see Commander Malcus Yeagrey."

"Oh, yes, do come in." The sound of a magnetic lock disengaging echoed from inside the door, and it slowly slid open.

The command center was a large hemisphere with computer consoles running the entire circumference of the room. Those consoles only rose about six feet up the walls, however. Beginning about two feet above the consoles, the entire hemisphere was covered in view-screens. The 360º panoramic display created the illusion that they were actually outside on the surface of the moon. Besides all of this, there were several seats in the center of the room for commanding officials to coordinate activities. Their consoles were set slightly up from the floor on a platform that rose a few feet.

"Ah, there you are, Akatsuki, the Commander's been expecting you," a man said, rising from one of the seats in the center of the room. He nodded at the Chairman and then turned to Dan. "And I was hoping to get a chance to talk to the famous Captain Shroads of the Samayahita." He approached the pair that had entered and eagerly shook Dan's hand.

"Me? Famous?" Dan asked, chuckling.

"Of course you are," the man said. "Everyone in the United Forces has heard of the Samayahita and her captain." He took out a cigarette and lit it. "Oh, forgive me for smoking, but whenever we're in a high alert like this, I get the craving and I can't help myself. Should have given up the damn things years ago, but every time I quit, I end up smoking an entire pack in one setting one week later. I assume that's even worse than smoking on a regular basis, so I just quit trying to quit." Quickly, he took a long drag of the cigarette and turned his head to blow out the smoke. "I didn't even introduce myself. My name is Captain Bob Halliway, captain of the Zephyranthes. Commander Yeagrey pulled me off and had me assist him here for today while we finish taking control of the base. You want to meet him, right?"

"Yes, that's what we're here for," Dan said. "We were hoping to meet with him right now if that's possible."

"Oh, it's quite possible," a voice said. A figure rose from the center seat on the plateau in the middle of the room. "I am Malcus Yeagrey, the one and only." He descended the short row of steps from the raised platform and approached them. "It's nice to meet you. Your record over the past few months is impressive. Perhaps a lot of it has to do with the power of your battleship, but it would be foolish not to recognize your level of skill. After all, if I were as skilled as you, they may have appointed me to the battleship instead."

Dan shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Well, it helps to have such an excellent crew. After all, they're the ones doing everything for me. I'm just the guy who bosses people around."

"Yes, that's true," Malcus said, "but you're forgetting that they only do what you tell them to do. You're not giving yourself enough credit. It's important to have a competent captain, such as yourself."

Akatsuki cleared his throat. "Hey, Commander, remember me?" he said while smiling. Dan could not tell if Akatsuki was perturbed or joking.

"Oh yes, the chairman of Nergal. I need to speak with you in private." The Commander turned to Dan. "I'm sorry we can't get to know each other better right now, but why don't we have lunch tomorrow if you're still at the base?"

Dan nodded. "Yes, I could do that. I'll speak with you tomorrow, then." He turned and walked for the door, and Akatsuki and the commander walked across to the other side of the room.

Hitoshi rested on his bed quietly, staring at the ceiling. "Why did it have to work out this way?" he murmured out loud. "It did not have to be like this." He was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Ruri Hoshino, where are you?"

TO BE CONTINUED…


End file.
